Up At The Lake

The recurrent bouts of career-genocide that follow-on from the inevitable implosion of a UK musical ‘movement’ by now hold little fear for The Charlatans. Over the years, Tim and co have stood back unmolested as the corpses of erstwhile contemporaries like The Soup Dragon, Shed Seven and Cast were flung vengefully from the indie battlements.
Upbeat bonhomie has always been The Charlie’s shtick. And thus far it’s served them well.
However, with Up At The Lake – their eighth album – the laughter is starting to sound a little hollow.
The disappointing performance of 2001’s Curtis Mayfield-indebted Wonderland appears to have ushered in a downsizing of production values – Tim Burgess could hardly be accused of sharing a vocal manner with Lemmy, but in places here he’s practically diaphanous. Likewise, and despite the presence of Ken Nelson and The Chemical Brothers on mixing duties, the title track, ‘Feel The Pressure’ and ‘As I Watch You In Disbelief’ only sound partially-realised.

However, just when you begin to suspect that this is the record that charts The Charlatans’ death rattle, from out of nowhere it kicks into belated life. ‘Bona Fide Treasure’, a bizarre Ray Davies knees-up, is best not approached with a straight face, but it jars a previously torpid record into animation. And, while Up At The Lake never once looks like earning cult, never mind classic, status, it does benefit from the presence of ‘High Up Your Tree’, ‘I’ll Sing A Hymn (You Come To Me)’ and ‘Try Again Today’ – a show-stopping trio of tunes that fuse the band’s long-held soul, pedal-steel and big-haired Bob fixations just about as successfully as they have managed so far.

In a curiously third division record, they are the only moments that point to a Premier League pedigree. Down on their luck football teams are fond of quoting the legend: Form is temporary; class permanent. You get the feeling that The Charlatans are about to discover which part of that maxim applies most suitably to them.