The Charlatans - Oh! Vanity
Nov 3, 2008
Until recently, The Charlatans were one of those modern rarities: an indie band that actually got better with age. From their late 80s beginnings desperately hanging on to the coat tails of the Roses and Happy Mondays, they gradually forged their own sound, and made some fantastic records, right up until 2001s superb Prince-aping Wonderland.
Then it suddenly, horribly, went really badly wrong, reaching rock bottom with 2006's Simpatico, whereby the Charlatans suddenly became UB40. With their latest album, You Cross My Path, the band managed to gather a lot of attention for giving the thing away for free, if not for the actual songs themselves which saw a return to the New Order influences of Between 10th and 11th. When a band returns to their signature sound having spent a decade trying new things, it is usually an act of desperation. Unfortunately, that's the case here. 'Oh! Vanity', isn't terrible by any means; it's just that it wants 'Sproston Green''s sound sooo bad it forgets to have an identity of its own. And the b-side, 'Complete Control', is embarrassingly New Order. Their time has well and truly passed, methinks.
