The Charlatans

Who We Touch (Cooking Vinyl/The End)

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: September 16th, 2010 | 7:00pm

We Americans don’t know what we’ve been missing. The Charlatans (known in the U.S. as the Charlatans UK) have been weaving in and out of the pantheon of great British rock for the last couple of decades now, yet how many of us have actually heard of them? Not many. They’ve only been on the periphery here in the States, though many of their albums and singles off those albums have roared up the UK charts. “The Only One I Know” reached the top ten singles chart. “Weirdo” reached the top twenty. Their 1994 album, Up to Our Hips (Beggars Banquet), reached #8 and their 1995 self-titled record blazed to #1. Still, we haven’t really heard much of them which is a shame. They’ve been inventing and re-inventing themselves (their keyboardist was killed in a car crash when they were on top of their game) for twenty years, and that culmination is coming by way of their eleventh album, Who We Touch.

Produced by Martin “Youth” Glover (Embrace, the Verve) and recorded at Britannia Row in London, the band continues, against the odds, to make straight on indie rock hits. With Tim Burgess (vocals), Mark Collins (guitar), Martin Blunt (bass), Tony Rogers (keyboards), and Jon Brookes (drums), and with a wink towards the musical stylings of the Stone Roses and the Rolling Stones, the album is strong from top to bottom.

Its first single, “Love is Ending,” starts with a cacophonic roar, drives toward thriving beats, and grows into a Beatles-esque tune. “Your Pure Soul” starts quiet and restrained before blooming into a sure fire radio hit. “You Can Swim” begins as a lullaby of sorts with simple lyrics and simple orchestrations before revealing a hidden track, an odd ‘60s psychedelic romp with spoken word. As a whole, Who We Touch is a testament to a band that has stuck it out through thick and thin. Twenty years on, and they still rock.

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The Charlatans official Web site

The Charlatans MySpace page

Cooking Vinyl

The End Records