More kind words for the new album - this time, from Backseat Mafia! And so, twenty years after their last album, Devil Hopping, along comes a new long player from Oldham’s finest, Inspiral Carpets. A-graders in the 90’s Manchester (Madchester) scene, they had a slew of chart hits without ever graduating to the level of the Mondays or the Roses. Even then though, they mixed up the indie shuffle of those luminaries and mixed it up with a dose of garage and a whiff of psych, liberally provided by the organ of Clint Boon. Splitting up a year after Devil Hopping, the band reformed in the early 2000’s but new material seemed a long way off, when long time singer Tom Hingley quit in 2011. However, in stepped original singer Stephen Holt, who had only lasted a couple of EP’s before quitting halfway through the sessions for the bands debut album, Life, to form indie alsorans (but underrated nonetheless) The Rainkings. And so to the album Inspiral Carpets. Everything is still there – the riffs, both from Boon but guitarist Lambert as well, and Craig Gills driving drums are still there. Holt’s voice has more of the garage about it than Hingley’s more soulful delivery, but this seems to suit the sound of the record, a little more frayed at the edges than the clean delivery of (especially Devil Hopping) the bands earlier output. Most importantly though, the songs are still there. It’s a solid set of songs throughout, stronger than some (if not nearly all) of their previous albums it could be argued, and for a band that always hung their hat on their singles, there’s hatstands provided, especially in the form of recent single “Spitfire”, a psychedelic singalong – Boon alternating between these big riffs and stabbing accompaniments, and opener Monochrome. Elsewhere though Forever Here takes us down familiar Carpet territory, and Calling out to You shows that the band have lost none of their knack of writing melodies that sink in and take over even after just initial listens. To top it all, the band draft in John Cooper Clark on Let You Down, to brilliant effect. One of the tracks on the album is Out Time. Damn it, they might just be right. backseatmafia/2014/10/15/album-review-inspiral-carpets-inspiral-carpets/
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 09:20:46 +0000
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