Release Date: May 17, 2004
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Record label: MCA
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The British love an underdog, which may explain why the Charlatans have made it to their eighth album despite a death, an imprisonment, a bout of testicular cancer, a swindling accountant and a bassist who, following a nervous breakdown, came to rehearsals clutching carrier-bags of dog food. However, their success has been equally based around the indefinable joie de vivre that vocalist Tim Burgess brings to even their most ostensibly melancholy songs. Sensibly, Burgess has abandoned the curious falsetto of 2001's Wonderland in favour of his trademark (or Ian Brown's trademark) nasal whine, while the band have responded with some of their finest rollicking grooves.