Reviews
Artist: The Charlatans
Album: Us & Us Only Deluxe Edition
Label: UMC
Tracks: 30(2CD)
Website:http://www.thecharlatans.net
In recent years the folk movement has already claimed XTC and the Clash, well in reviewing this deluxe edition of "Us & Us Only", I think it's time to make a long overdue attempt to claim the Charlatans.
The 2cd package delivers the original album, single b-sides, remixes, live tracks and alternative takes, some thirty tracks in all. It provides and opportunity not only to get into the album, but also into the psyche of the band in a way that just listening to album straight.
Without a question of doubt, The Charlatans are a very songs orientated band. The focus was around the strength of the material, rather than vocal or instrumental dynamics, that's not to say they couldn't sing or play, the very obviously could. Its more that the most important thing was how the song sounded, that the lyric was right, that the meaning and core of the song was what was left once the record stopped spinning.
Good song writing alone does not a folk band make, and I really am using the widest definition of the term, there are other overriding factors, like the way, people, characters and issues are brought into a song. In some cases, "A House Is Not A Home", the title very much plays to the content and sets the frame of mind before the first chord is struck.
That is countered by more cryptic titles, "Good Witch, Bad Witch" for example. A song the band reprised on the original album and one that gets additional outings as part of this package, as do the likes of "My Beautiful Friend" and "The Blind Stagger".
Listening to the folk blues of "Senses" you realise that The Charlatans were always much more than the Britpop/Rock band they were portrayed as being, their tv and radio profile sold them short, particularly when compared to the live appearances.
Again that balance is redressed here with the inclusion of a number of live tracks and the almost legendary appearance on Jools Holland's "Later" towards the end of 2009. All of which further consolidate the strength of the band's songs and their ability to adapt them to the circumstance of their performance.
You get the impression that the Charlatans are a band that could be equally as happy performing intimate clubs as filling massive auditorium. There is a strength to their writing that does deserve to be heard and this special edition is just the place to do that.
The deluxe series really does have something for everyone, it's more than just a rehash of the original with a few extra tracks thrown in. By including the b-sides and alternative mixes, it positions the album and brings you closer to the band.
Even if you've already got the original there's a complete album and more with "Us & Us Only" as the freebie, if you're trying to find out what the Charlatan's were about, where they really sat amongst their peers, then there's a lot of answer's here. That the band have been selected to have a deluxe volume already says a lot.
This is an album rich in songs, there are reflections of the life and times that passed through and by the band and which was captured by them and turned into words and tunes. Doesn't get much better than that.
Neil King