On this, the first album by one of the most obscure bands I’ve come across, Britain’s This Picture delivers the goods on at least half of the record. But those tracks are above and beyond anything else that British bands were delivering at the time. Opening track “Naked Rain” is by a mile one of the greatest alt rock songs of the pre-Nirvana alternative rock era. It has great vocals courtesy of Symon Bye, a pulsing driving rhythm and great almost-staccato guitar work from Robert Forrester. The song is just an absolute treasure that deserves to be rediscovered.
The rest of the record however, is a bit more stagnant. Certain tracks like “Breathe Deeply Now” are great and earned a small spot on the charts, but there’s others like the overlong “Death’s Sweet Religion” that have never really done much for me.
The album’s other standout, its title track, is a great showcase for the band and really proves how amazing musicians they all were; it shows just how in sync they were and how powerful of a band they really could be. Unfortunately it was not to be; it would be three years before another record was released and by that time, their fanbase had moved on and the band was over by 1995.
This is definitely a record worth digging for in record store dollar bins and looking up very cheaply on Amazon. It is truly worth a listen if you want to hear some great songs and wish to remember what alternative rock sounded like before Nirvana and Pearl Jam got popular. Listening to this disc will really give you a chance to check out some great Brit rock before the likes of Elastica and Oasis ruined it for everybody.
