We Cast Music: Weirdo

Song: Weirdo
Artist: The Charlatans UK
Album: Between 10th and 11th

Sometimes I just can’t keep up… there aren’t enough hours in the day, and more so… there is just TOO much out there. I’m talking about music in general, and specifically The Charlatans UK, a band that had a few alt-rock hits back 1992 here in the U.S. I got their record (which was their second) entitled “Between 10th and 11th,” and enjoyed their particular brand of Brit-pop. This was, of course, before the HUGE explosion of Brit-pop that happened with the war of Oasis vs. Blur, though unfortunately here, The Charlatans (whom add UK here for legal reasons as there is another group with the same name here in the States) did not achieve their level of success.

I began thinking about how I just literally can’t keep up when I recently discovered that it was The Charlatans UK that wrote and initially recorded “The Only One I Know,” the song that Robbie Williams performs on Mark Ronson’s album “Version.” When I began to do a little research (which is infinitely easier with the internet, which wasn’t around when I fist listened to the band) I found that “The Only One I Know” came from their debut album “Some Friendly” back in 1990 and that the band recently released their ninth (NINTH!) album last year. Where have I been? How did I miss this? Not to mention… according to their Wikipedia page, “Between 10th and 11th”was “poorly received.” Oh well… it’s how I heard of them, and I like it.

Because of all this I pulled out my CD of “Between 10th and 11th” and took a re-listen. “Weirdo,” the song that introduced me to the band still bristles, and “Can’t Even Be Bothered” reminds me a touch of the new Radiohead album. Crazy.

But once again, I am overwhelmed by how much this band has done… and yet I didn’t even know they were still at it. Once realizing that “The Only One I Know” was theirs, I was immediately interested in hearing more from the band yet with EIGHT records I’m not familiar with, I think I just need to let it be.

Enjoy.

Weirdo