one-hit wonder<\/a>. And truthfully, 90 percent or more of the people who think they might have heard that name, but aren\u2019t entirely sure, will light up like a Roman candle when you sing the chorus of \u201cRoll To Me.\u201d (\u201cOh yeah! Those guys!\u201d) The group\u2019s one true international hit single reached #10 on the US pop charts and #22 in the UK with its ebullient energy and impossibly sticky chorus hook.<\/p>\nWhat this collection makes clear to a casual fan like yours truly is how much more there has always been to Del Amitri, and how well their slow-burn, hard-earned, long-term success is deserved. \u201cLong-term success?\u201d Well, yes: the Dels\u2014who continue to cloak the origins of their made-up band name in playful vagueness\u2014have been active for most of the last 40 years and remain a going concern today, with a lineup that continues to revolve around singer-songwriter-bassist Justin Currie and his musical other half Iain Harvie, guitarist and occasional co-writer. Andy Alston has been on board since the band added a keyboard slot in 1989, and while the other two positions have been somewhat of a revolving door over the years, the current lineup boasts returnees Ash Sloan (drums 1994-97, 2013-present) and Kris Dollimore (guitar 1997-2002, 2013-present).<\/p>\n
Del Amitri\u2019s musical approach has rarely wavered over those 40-odd years; they consistently deliver smart, energetic songs that meld the cheeky sophistication of Crowded House and Squeeze with the power-pop drive of Teenage Fanclub and The Rave-Ups. This collection offers a thorough, and thoroughly entertaining, introduction to a group that many of you out there have likely heard of without ever really getting to know.<\/p>\n
The one new song recorded for this 1998 collection covering the band\u2019s first five studio albums is opener \u201cCry To Be Found,\u201d a blue-eyed soul number with enough of Currie\u2019s superb falsetto to make you think of Prince, backed by sharply arranged strings supplementing the bass-guitar-drums-keys core. Without further adieu, they roll into the rousing, exuberant \u201cRoll To Me,\u201d a top-notch pop song with bounce, a singalong chorus, and an elastic arrangement with superb guitar work supplemented by synths and percussion adding their own little sonic hooks. Even the way they double the vocals only on the words \u201croll to me\u201d is perfect; this song is the definition of ear candy, a tune where every single element is exactly where your ear wants it to be.<\/p>\n
From there, the boys plow through their back catalog delivering tunes that draw a wide range of elements into their basic pop-rock framework, from country blues (\u201cKiss This Thing Goodbye\u201d features harmonica, acoustic slide and banjo) to edgy blue-eyed soul (\u201cJust Like A Man\u201d) to mournful ballads (the melancholy \u201cDriving With The Brakes On\u201d is a standout). For every tune that feels like their take on classicist power pop (see the propulsive \u201cNot Where It\u2019s At\u201d in particular), there\u2019s a counterpoint like the yearning, ambiguous, vaguely creepy \u201cAlways The Last To Know\u201d (a #13 hit in the UK, though it barely cracked the Top 40 stateside). One minute they\u2019re pushing into XTC territory with the earnest, philosophical \u201cNothing Ever Happens,\u201d the next they\u2019re pushing those AOR buttons like they\u2019d really rather be The Babys (\u201cHere And Now\u201d).<\/p>\n
Still, the best of the rest is probably \u201cWhen You Were Young,\u201d a coulda-shoulda-been hit whose gentle mid-tempo acoustic verses build to an anthemic electric chorus before falling back, and which features sharp lines like \u201cThe disappointment of success \/ Hangs from your shoulders like a hand-me-down dress.\u201d One thing Del Amitri has done right over and over again is to craft fresh and often inventive arrangements designed to reinforce the mood and themes of each song, keeping any solos tight and focused.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s a lot to like on this jam-packed 68-minute collection, not everything here works as well as the big singles. To name two, \u201cSpit In The Rain\u201d features cheesy \u201980s synth tones and a lyrical conceit that doesn\u2019t quite work, and \u201cStone Cold Sober\u201d tries too hard for clever and ends up sounding silly and somewhat generic.<\/p>\n
Fortunately they close out this collection with three strong tunes. The rather woozy \u201cBe My Downfall\u201d features banjo, slide, and accordion as Currie offers this melancholy come-on: \u201cBe my downfall \/ Be my great regret \/ Be the one girl \/ That I’ll never forget \/ Be my undoing \/ Be my slow road to ruin tonight.\u201d The title track from 1997\u2019s Some Other Sucker\u2019s Parade<\/i> is a big-boned rocker whose crunchy riffing never gets too heavy in this self-deprecating drinking song. And then closer \u201cDon\u2019t Come Home Too Soon\u201d\u2014written as the official theme song for Scotland\u2019s 1998 World Cup team\u2014serves also to cement Del Amitri\u2019s underdog identity with strings, mandolin, and tambourine framing Currie\u2019s resolute and rather wistfully optimistic lyric: \u201cGo then out into history and show them how easy it can be \/ You might not believe it, yeah, but pretty soon you\u2019ll see \/ Even longshots make it.\u201d <\/p>\n
They do. Del Amitri is a band that\u2019s never stood out in any particular way other than the persistent application of considerable talent to songwriting, arrangements, and performance. They know who they are, and with Hatful Of Rain<\/i>, demonstrated convincingly that they are much more than that one song that everyone remembers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5641],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46422","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-del-amitri","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46422","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46422"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}