CHARLATANS – WHO WE TOUCH

I own the Charlatans 1990 The Only One I Know single (vinyl 45), a brilliant slice of Manchester/Brit pop. It announced that The Stone Roses and the Happy Monday’s had some serious baggy trouser competition. While a series of set-backs, internal and external, meant they never really got to those lofty heights, the Charlatans can rightly claim to at least have long out-lived their colleagues. Album number twelve opens amidst a hail of feedback and noise, before rocking solidly throughout Love is Ending, a song whose chorus owes more to The Sex Pistols than anyone else. But any hopes for a tougher approach fade quickly. My Foolish Pride is a good slice of piano-driven pop but by the time these near-pensioners launch into Smash the System then any hopes of a resurrection are well and truly dashed – “I know I should play your game / But I don’t deal with crooks / I’ll tell you lies / Smash the system / Then burn the books.” A band half their age would and should have trouble getting away with lines like that. An exercise in perseverance for those now clean-living kinky afros having pill-induced flashbacks.

** 1/2