The whole Madchester thing passed me by. The combination of Manchester, laddishness and drug culture really put me off, at a time in my life when I was a new parent and still harking back to golden days of music 10-15 years earlier.
But I’ve followed Tim Burgess on Twitter for a couple of years and enjoyed his lockdown listening parties, as well as his open minded approach to all music of all genres and eras, so felt it was about time I checked out his band, The Charlatans. On finding a Charlatans album in a charity shop for a pound, I’ve now got the ideal opportunity.
Wonderland is their 7th album, so perhaps not the best place to start. I can’t really think of any artist whose finest work is their 7th album. Three songs in, the impression is that this is OK. Standard pop/rock songs done competently but without anything making an impact. A Man Needs To Be Told is an interesting slower number, a massive contrast of styles, with country tinged guitars over Motown style backing vocals, which somehow works. Later on Wake Up, and Ballad Of The Band make me look at the CD cover to find out what this is. And my impression at the end of this is that I’ve quite enjoyed the album, without it really making much impression nor sending me scooting through the Charlatans’ back catalogue.
3* - a decent enough album, but not groundbreaking
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