The Bluetones: The Bluetones
Not the most awe-inspiring album sleeve of all time...
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Published by Little, Brown, out now, hardback, 256 pages, £16. |  |
Monday, 09, Oct 2006 06:16
Cooking Vinyl, October 9th .
In a nutshell..
Chirpy. Exhuberant. Edgy. Canny. Rebirth.
What's it all about?
There exists in the depths of football fandom a group called the 92 Club, whose members are proud to have visited all grounds in the football league. In recent years it seems as if the Bluetones have been going for the gig venue equivalent of this - putting in touring hours which might make Status Quo or the Saw Doctors feel bone idle. But now everybody's secret Britpop faves - or the quartet from Hounslow, as they seem be dubbed in most coverage - are back, thrusting themselves firmly into the consciousness of a public that was starting to see them as jobbing itinerants.
Mark Morriss and friends return with a bounce in their step. Here, three years after the virtually unnoticed Luxembourg, is the spring and wit of Expecting to Fly and Return to the Last Chance Saloon mixed with a wisdom, a knowingness, sometimes even a mournfulness, which suggests a band that had it, lost it and may just have found it again.
Who's it by?
Formerly called The Bottlegarden, The Bluetones seem to have been around for ever - and first came to the public eye in 1996 with the memorable album Expecting to Fly, which proved one of the most important contributions to the Britpop wave. Success followed with Return to the Last Chance Saloon, and the iconic single If, but the following Science & Nature struggled despite decent tracks such as Keep the Home Fires Burning, and it seemed to be all downhill from there.
West London foursome Mark Morriss, Scott Morriss, Eds Chesters and Adam Devlin form the band, all of whom are now well in their thirties.
As an example.
"Say you've done a Kerouac/Say you're never coming back/But we won't/Lose any sleep/Cos talk is cheap" - Thank You, Not Today.
"Oh, the consequences/May have crossed my mind/But I am positively/Blissful with my lot" - the wonderfully upbeat last four lines of Surrendered.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
It'd be nice. The Bluetones have become relatively niche in recent years, attracting little more than a residual hardcore following, but for this album to provoke a wave of Britpop nostalgia and an appreciation of days when we had it pretty good would be no bad thing at all. And besides, this is very fine music in its own right.
What the others say
"Despite their years, they have produced a quality release, full of great songs that doesn't wallow too much in the sound of their youth," - CD Times.
"There is an understanding of life and the variety of it that comes through in each of the ten songs," - Contactmusic.
So is it any good?
Yes. The old confidence, brio and occasional downright cheekiness have returned, mixed with an acute sentience. Starting this make-or-break album with a track as compellingly strong as Surrendered was a superb gamble, and one which seems to have paid off. The opening song reels the listener in with its jaunty, bright drumbeat and its sudden change of key and pace. The result is an eminently hummable tune with confident, clever and touching lyrics. It's certainly not downhill thereafter - the trippy, urgent Baby Back Up has single written all over it and Hope and Jump, with its disquieting, almost murmured introduction and elegy to humans' sensitivity to ennui, haunts with its cello interludes.
There is nothing on here as anthemic as, say, If - but this album has scarcely a weak song. Head on a Spike's attempt at blurry madness is perhaps a little unsuccessful, while the intriguing Fade In, Fade Out - dedicated to Morriss's friend David Walliams before his cross-channel swim - is raw and delicate but seems to lack something. These slight quibbles are compensated for by tracks such as My Neighbour's House, which was the first single from the album to be released and brims with up-tempo fecklessness and abandon. There's not necessarily anything new here, but perhaps that's the point - the quartet have returned to the tried and tested.
One thing which mustn't be overlooked is that Morriss can sing. Genuinely. His voice provided some of Britpop's iconic vocals and it resonates as clearly, twangily, almost hauntingly, here. There's a wisdom behind his sound this time around, one which perhaps contains a faint cynicism but clearly is not out of love with what he does best. If the Bluetones have entered the last chance saloon before, then they've contrived to do it again - and you sense that, once more, they'll be getting a few more rounds in.
8/10
Nick Ames