šŸŽµ How Good Are They Really šŸŽµ The Charlatans

3, theyā€™re alright but I cannot ever get excited about them.

Was pretty into them up to Tellinā€™ Stories, but seeing them live around this time bored me to tears and I sort of just gave up on them. Certainly havenā€™t knowingly heard anything they released after that.

I occasionally return to Some Friendly from time to time, but thatā€™s mostly for Sproston Green, which remains a banger. And I relistened to Tellinā€™ Stories again fairly recently to see if it held up, but it didnā€™t for me. Just felt decidedly average.

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Very good singles band but rarely feel the need to go back to them. Tim seems like a GBOL so its a 4

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Always get them confused with The Bluetones. Only really know One To Another. Tim Burgess is a top lad though, the Twitter listening parties heā€™s been doing have been a fantastic idea.

Not really a fan of ā€˜oh youā€™re too young/old to be into themā€™ in general but will be quite interesting to see the 30+/under 30 split on this one.

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I really love How High, thereā€™s a dirtiness and swagger to his voice which is more like a grunge artist but then all other singles leave me cold. Remember liking a Man Needs To Be Told and Love Is The Key in high school but never heard them since. 2

Iā€™m 33 and have never knowingly listened to them

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The Only One I Know and Weirdo are both 5/5 songs with most of the singles up until the end of 1995 being pretty enjoyable.

Hated the stuff they did from One To Another and beyond though and North Country Boy is one of my most hated records.

3/5 on reflection since Timā€™s a great guy.

Only five songs Iā€™d even listen to on that compilation.

  1. I like what i have heard but i have no real desire to listen to a studio album these days. Greatest hits compilation is probably fine

Seem like good eggs

Quite surprised that people claim to have never heard them. I thought everyone would have at least knew this?

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Some decent tunes, and probably deserve a bit of praise for changing their sound up and reinventing themselves more than once during their time.

The fact theyā€™ve released 7 albums this century is a bit of a surprise!

4/5

One of my favourite bands from 95-02: The S/T LP was one of the first albums I remember buying with my own money (Ā£3.99 on tape at HMV). Tim Burgessā€™ 1995/6 hairstyle was definitely something I aspired to then.

Saw them at Doncaster Dome on the Tellinā€™ Stories tour in 97, supported by Monaco. Gig made memorable for Peter Hookā€™s opening Tap-esque couplet: ā€˜Weā€™re Monaco, youā€™re Doncaster. Letā€™s F***ā€™

Listened to them less and less after Wonderland, as tastes changed, but will usually check out new stuff out of a sense of loyalty. Timā€™s solo stuff is quite interesting too.

Had this on some compilation album, enjoyed it a lot

I always preferred the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses back in the early 90ā€™s but obviously The Charlatans kept at it and have released some decent tunes over the years. Tellinā€™ Stories was the last album of theirs that I listened to. That was a decent album. Couldnā€™t name much of their stuff since then. 3 seems to be a fair grade.

Wife and I often have Absolute 90s Radio on while we work, every time a Charlatans single comes on I go ā€œoh man this is so good I really need to explore them moreā€ and then immediately forget about them afterwards.

2/5.

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Youā€™re up a week on Friday btw.

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Ooh exciting!

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Underappreciated

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Theyā€™re ok. Solid, mid-table indie fare. Iā€™ve always been a bit mystified that quite a lot of people think theyā€™re absolutely amazing. Isnā€™t it weirder somehow when people rave about stuff that you quite like than when they rave about stuff you hate?

Tim Burgess is a very sound bloke though.

A solid, mid-table 3.

A lovely song. Iā€™d heard it several times before I found out it was by The Charlatans and being really surprised it was them

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