One of the most difficult things about reviewing early works
\nfrom any artist is trying to view those albums in the context of
\nthe time they were recorded in… and not allowing their latter-day
\nwork to shape your view. Sometimes, I succeed; other times, I fail
\nmiserably.<\/p>\n
In the case of Scotland’s Del Amitri, it’s really hard to forget
\nabout the bulk of their catalog when listening to their 1985
\nself-titled debut. It’s almost like listening to two different
\nbands – and I really hate to say it, but I like the “newer” version
\nbetter.<\/p>\n
Justin Currie and company aren’t the pop-rock balladeers they
\nbecame starting with
\nWaking Hours<\/i> their first time around. On
\nDel Amitri<\/i>, they sound a lot like R.E.M. meets The Cure –
\nand it’s not always the prettiest sound. Sure, you’ve got Iain
\nHarvie’s guitar’s jangling like Peter Buck, rarely dipping into
\nbarre-chord land. But balanced with this, you’ve got Currie
\nspitting out stream-of-consciousness vocals that sounded more like
\nthe Unabomber’s rant. Currie hadn’t quite developed a powerful
\nstyle of singing yet, so tracks like “Heard Through A Wall,” “Crows
\nIn The Wheatfield” and “Sticks And Stones Girl” have about as much
\nweight as a feather in a tornado.<\/p>\n
In all honesty, these tracks could have been improved with one
\nor two minor changes. Maybe if Currie had dropped such a repetitive
\nchorus on “Crows In The Wheatfield” it could have been a better
\ntrack. Maybe if the style of music hadn’t been so new-wave (though,
\ngratefully, not a la Devo) these would have been a little easier to
\nswallow. But the sad fact is, they aren’t – at least not in this
\nincarnation.<\/p>\n
Only the closing track, “Breaking Bread” holds out any hope for
\nDel Amitri<\/i>. More in the pop-rock vein than any of the nine
\npreceeding tracks, Currie and crew sound like they finally hit a
\nlevel of comfort musically, and they truly shine on this one song.
\nToo bad it comes right at the end – but one could argue it left
\nhope for the band’s next outing… four years later.<\/p>\n
Maybe
\nDel Amitri<\/i> was the kind of album that Currie and crew needed
\nto get out of their systems early on in the game. Maybe this really
\nis a picture of a band looking for a distinctive style and voice,
\nand finding out their search was to continue. Whatever the case, if
\nyou pick this one up hoping to hear early versions of “Roll To
\nMe”-like songs, you’re going to be in for an unpleasant shock. This
\none is for the die-hard fans only… and, since it’s out of print
\nat the time I’m writing this, good luck finding it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5641],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-39560","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-del-amitri","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39560","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=39560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39560"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39560"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}