Since briefly tasting success with the popularity of their
\nsingle “Roll To Me,” the Scottish band Del Amitri has been trying
\nto distance themselves from the slower, acoustic-tinged numbers of
\ngloom, doom and depression they have become known for.<\/p>\n
Their fifth album,
\nSome Other Sucker’s Parade<\/i>, is more in the pop vein that is
\nmeant to win them more precious radio airplay. A friend of mine who
\nhas connections to the band warned me, “You’re probably not gonna
\nlike this album, seeing how you loved
\nChange Everything<\/i>.” (Apparently she also related to the band
\nthat, when I was listening to their debut album, I commented I was
\ngoing into insulin shock. Now the band won’t return my phone calls
\n– proving it’s costly to speak your mind.)<\/p>\n
I hate being told what I’m going to think. Worse, I hate to
\nadmit that she was partially right.<\/p>\n
Lead singer\/bassist Justin Currie still is one of rock’s lovable
\nmopes – he puts into words the feelings of fear of rejection and
\ncommitment that most men feel. The lead single, “Not Where It’s
\nAt,” captures that feeling to a “T” – our hero finds himself
\nattracted to a woman who is just not interested in him. This song
\nis not getting near enough airplay that it deserves – maybe the
\npoor performance recently on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” scared
\nsome radio execs off.<\/p>\n
The comparison between the television performance and the studio
\nversion also brings up an interesting dilemma:
\nSome Other Sucker’s Parade<\/i> features quite a bit of vocal
\noverdubbing. How Del Amitri intend on pulling this off live will be
\ninteresting – or could be disastrous.<\/p>\n
“Through All That Nothing” is a track which continues to grow in
\npower on each listen. The tempo is much slower than I would like
\nfrom Del Amitri, but the musicianship on this one, combined with
\none of Currie’s best vocal performances, carries the track. Another
\none of the excellent cuts on this album is “Medicine,” a number
\nabout someone trying to destroy their true identity as a means of
\nescape – though we are given no clues why this escape is necessary.
\nI find this song disturbing – only because a friend of mine went
\nthrough something almost exactly like this, and the subject matter
\nhits home. Currie is correct in his declaration that the cure –
\nhere, assuming a new persona – is often worse than whatever you
\nwere running from. Also noteworthy is the BoDeans feel of “Life Is
\nFull,” a raucous little number that shows off the Dels in their
\nmost creative and enjoyable.<\/p>\n
With the change of focus comes an addition of a tinge of funk to
\nthe songwriting – both “High Times” and “Cruel Light Of Day” get a
\ngroove slapped onto them. On the latter track, Currie starts
\ngetting daring on the bass. Three words: It’s about time! Currie’s
\nbass lines have recently tended to either be one-note thumps or
\nprogressions up the neck of the instrument. It’s interesting to
\nhear the fingers and strings fly here.<\/p>\n
From all I’ve said so far, one would think that
\nSome Other Sucker’s Parade<\/i> is their best album.
\nUnfortunately, it isn’t. While “No Family Man” features some of the
\nband’s crispest acoustic work I’ve ever heard, the lyrics grow
\nstale real quick. The lyrics also take a hit on “High Times,” where
\nthey occasionally border on inane – sample: “Don’t crash my
\nspiritual plane.” Say what?<\/p>\n
“Won’t Make It Better” has a style that I’ve heard in other
\nbands – though I can’t think of one name to save my life right now.
\nI did enjoy the falsetto harmonies, but I wish there have been more
\nlyrical development. The title track also suffers in the lyric
\ndepartment. And if the drum beat sounds familiar, one needs only to
\nlisten to early efforts of Rod Stewart. Two words: “Maggie May.”
\n‘Nuff said. Also falling below par are “Funny Way To Win” and “Make
\nIt Always Be Too Late.” On the latter song, you know Del Amitri
\nmeans heavy business by the use of a minor key – and I hate it when
\nthey want to talk heavy business.<\/p>\n
On this album, Currie does sound like he’s the happiest he’s
\nbeen in some time – “Through All That Nothing” proves that. But for
\nevery “Not Where It’s At” and “Mother Nature’s Writing,” there’s a
\n“What I Think She Sees” waiting to knock the band off its pedestal.
\nIain Harvie’s guitar work is good, but like Currie and his bass
\nlines, I wish he would just cut loose and put his six-string
\nthrough a workout.<\/p>\n
\nSome Other Sucker’s Parade<\/i> is easily Del Amitri’s most
\nchallenging album to listen to – even more difficult than
\nTwisted<\/i>. To be honest, I didn’t like that album until I had
\nlistened to it about a dozen times. I’ve tried plowing through this
\none several times, and it’s just too difficult to complete in one
\nsitting. (Ask me in a year what I think, and there’s a good chance
\nmy opinion of this album will be higher.) And while I fully expect
\nto get flamed for some of my thoughts, it’s not like I didn’t give
\nthe album a fair shake. I listened to the whole disc twice just
\nbefore publishing this, and my opinion still hadn’t changed.<\/p>\n
Nouveau fans may be disappointed there’s not another track
\nsimilar to “Roll To Me” on
\nSome Other Sucker’s Parade<\/i> – thank God. And in retrospect,
\nit is another decent effort by the band. But I’d be hard-pressed to
\nsay it beats their early wonders
\nWaking Hours<\/i> and
\nChange Everything<\/i>. If anything, this may be a warning sign
\nthat the brooding martyr act is starting to wear thin – and that
\nCurrie and crew shouldn’t be trying to force themselves to become
\npop stars. Fact is, they were closer than they ever realized until
\nthis one came along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5641],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-35682","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-del-amitri","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35682"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35682"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}