Cast – All Change (1995)

A quid at a boot fair, as all the popular albums from the Britpop era tend to be thirty years later.

Cast was John Power's post The La's band, apparently frustrated at having played the same dozen songs for five years in that band, and this was their debut album.

All the songs are Power compositions, and all are well constructed, likeable rock numbers.

Hit single Alright opens up, still enjoyable, followed by Promised Land, in a similar vein, before the next hit single, Sandstorm, which to my ears owes more than a nod to Julian Cope's Sunspots. And the album continues with listenable, likeable, but not necessarily memorable songs. Four Walls slows the pace down a bit followed by Finetime, the debut single, and for me the best song on the album. Back Of My Mind is a solid rocker taking us to the last hit single from the album, the reflective Walkaway, a decent pop song. But it's back to higher energy with guitar riff led songs in Reflections and History, before a slower extended ending with the Byrds-influenced Two Of A Kind.

Well, not quite an ending as there's 15 minutes of silence before a pointless instrumental hidden track. Although, if my CD player tells me the track is 25 minutes long, it's not really hidden, is it lads?

This is a decent enough pop album which has held up well and is still worth hearing thirty years on. Nothing groundbreaking, and not a lot of variety, but an enjoyable listen.

Link to album tracks

3* - a Britpop era album that's still worth listening to, unlike most of the work of their noisy contemporaries' at the other end of the East Lancs Road