DISQUS

D Ragland · 1 year ago

Thanks for this! All I own of theirs is Some Other Sucker's Parade. I've been curious about their other releases, so it's a delight to see a guide devoted to them!

Brandon · 1 year ago

LOVE me some Del Amitri - Justin Currie has one of the best voices (and set of sideburns) in rock! Thanks for giving them their due accord...just have to make mention of non-mentioned album tracks "BE MY DOWNFALL" (from Change Everything), "HERE AND NOW" & "TELL HER THIS" (from Twisted) and the stellar "WON'T MAKE IT BETTER" (from Some Other Sucker's Parade). Looking forward to the next project, wherever that may land...

John · 1 year ago

Great write up, though I'd argue with your dismissal of SOSP. I'd always seen Del Amitri as a band with one great single per album (Kiss This Thing Goodbye, Always the Last to Know and Roll to Me). Then "Not Where It's At" knocked me on my backside when I heard it on a sampler. I finally decided to pick up a record and fell in love with it. Great power pop with towering hooks. The latter half does fade, but until then, it's a fantastic album.

David_E · 1 year ago

I agree, John. Up to track 5, "Medicine," SOSP is terrific. But that drop off you speak of on the album's back half (or 2/3, in my opinion) is a fairly steep one. Except for "No Family Man," the last nine tracks don't do as much for me as I'd hoped. I kinda always wondered if the band didn't feel that way, too – and thus front-loaded the album with goodness.

JonCummings · 1 year ago

I've been a huge Del Amitri fan since the first album, which I played incessantly for two years. I don't care if everyone up to and including Justin Currie's mom disowns it; I think it's great, with those sped-up guitars and meandering melodies. They sounded like nobody else.

And then they came back four years later, and they were a completely different--but just as wonderful--band. "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" was my absolute favorite song of 1989 (not that there was much competition in that sorry year), though my girlfriend hated that I liked it so much--she thought it reflected my feelings toward her. As she's now my wife, she rests a bit easier now.

David_E · 1 year ago

The "sped up meandering guitars" sure do separate the Dels from their peers on the surface. But to these ears, right underneath that surface it's all Smiths and XTC.

... I came to that first album late, though, like most American fans. So I'm perhaps not the best person to judge it in context.

dslifton · 1 year ago

My favorite is Surface Of The Moon - yuppified urban renewal as a symbol of lost love. Man, what a concept...

Matt · 1 year ago

I've had a Dels post brewing for the while...this might push it over the edge!

They're one of my absolute favorites...

Some Other Suckers Parade didn't hit me right away.....it took a while for me to get into it, and now I really like it...particularly "What I Think She Sees" and "Make It Always Be Too Late."

LOVED the Twisted album.....great lyrics on stuff like "Never Enough" -

"And these days the morning mirror seems to say to you now,
That you used to be pretty but you're alright now."

Awesome...

Also dug Currie's album....thought I had read that the solo album and Del Amitri project were going on around the same time, and that the Dels album would come out later....I imagine that they'll put out another record eventually...hopefully sooner rather than later!

steve · 1 year ago

This band is gold! Matt, you took the words right outta my keyboard. I was obsessed w/Change and Twisted. More hooks than a tackle box and awesome melodies. Then SOSP came out and I didn't like it. But over time it grew on me and I really love it now, especially "Mother Nature's Writing". I don't have Currie's album but have a few songs that seem pretty bleak. But hey, he's a bleak guy. I've been to Glasgow and I can see how that happened...

Great band, great post.

David_E · 1 year ago

Thanks, Steve. It was a fun post to write. I was afraid the comments would run toward the negative ... to quote Currie's cousin (the avant garde artist/musician "Imomus," who has an avowedly cult following overseas), "Del Amitri means Scritti Politti in Dutch."

And that's family. Ouch.

David_E · 1 year ago

Y'know, I have always felt that Justin's lyrics are one of his strong points. Frankly, they (along with the hooks) are what makes me place him in such strong company as a songwriter. Sometimes the worldplay borders on precious, a little too clever-by-half. But he pulls it off.

EightE1 · 1 year ago

Suckers is my fave. I love "Won't Make It Better" and "Through All That Nothing. Can't think of the summer of '97 without that album in the soundtrack.

Rob
EightE1

Chuck B. · 1 year ago

Thanks for this one! I've been driving with the brakes on for years. Uplifting downloads!

W · 1 year ago

Nice overview. Thanks!

kshane · 1 year ago

It is great to see Del Amitri getting some love here. They were one of my favorite bands for many years. I had the opportunity to interview Justin a few months ago, and he's a lovely guy. Then I got to see him on tour, just himself and a keyboard player. It was a terrible venue in Atlantic City, and the crowd was sparse, but he handled it with great charm and put on a really good show.

Mike · 1 year ago

Nice to see Del Amitri getting their props. As is all too typical, they happen to be best known for what is easily their worst song. Justin Currie is one hell of a songwriter."Tell Her This" is one of the most beautiful love songs in existence.

Jeff · 1 year ago

Waking Hours is one of my favorite albums of the 80's, and one I still lend out to other people who are looking for something 'new' to listen to. I picked it up after seeing them perform 'Kiss This Thing Goodbye' on David Letterman. Of course, the fact that they are from Scotland, home of my all time favorite band, Big Country, helped make my purchasing decision, as well.

Old_Davy · 1 year ago

I discovered Del Amitri when A&M sent a promo copy of "Waking Hours" (along with David Baerwald's "Bedtime Stories") to the radio station where I worked in '89. The program director refused to play anything from either of them, and so I swiped them. He claimed they both were "too depressing". I had a free-for-all music show late Sunday nights, and I played "Opposite View". The next day the program director asked me about the song and wanted the CD back. Not to play on the air, but to keep for himself. Yeah, ok, I'll bring it in. It's still in my collection!!!

All of their albums have something of merit (except the first one which I loathe). Terribly underrated band.

My hmphs · 1 year ago

Dang it! I was just working on a post on how unappreciated Del Amitri was when I saw this. Good post - They deserved much more success than they actually got. And Lousy With Love - These songs were B-SIDES? It's better than most studio CDs or compilations I've heard.

alyse · 1 year ago

Very nice offering. I fell in love with the Dels while living in the Midwest (Mpls., Madison), where they got good airplay and venue opportunities, and I have remained a fan of Currie's, one of the single most underrated songwriters of his genre. His solo release of last year, "What Is Love For", is terrifically solid, and the spotlight he commands in an acoustic setting quite tremendous.

All that said, I must quibble with your interpretation of "Driving with the Brakes On". In all my listenings to this song, I have never once understood it to be about abortion. Although I have come across a similar understanding once somewhere else, this appears a rather abstract translation to me. I have always heard it as a treatise on the notion of being halfheartedly in love, not fully committed and not fully able to engage. I would be curious to know how you hear it otherwise.......yes, there's a line about a "kid" being gone, and about steering the conversation from "the thing we've done", but I just never laid such a specific experience as a couple navigating an abortion on top of those words. Feel free to convince me. : )

David_E · 1 year ago

Quibble away. I have no special insight here. :)

You've pulled the two lines on which I (and many others) base the abortion interpretation. It isn't rock solid, but you have to admit it holds up nicely.

The meaning of the song has been bandied about on fan sites for years. Apparently Justin himself, during an online Q&A session, said the song *was* about abortion. It was on the UK site (delamitri.co.uk) after Can You Do Me Good came out.

I have no link or proof, though. And your interpretation is just as valid.

Glad you enjoyed the post!

Aloysious · 1 year ago

One of the most honest overviews of the most incredible band that I've ever seen grace the stage of San Francisco's Fillmore. After seeing them in 1997, it was clear to me that these guys were playing for real and Justin's songs were solidly crafted. The gloominess of Justin Currie's songwriting doesn't seem to bother me, but it drives my wife crazy. She thinks a steady diet of it is depressing. I do agree that this point is a big reason why they were never a huge commercial success around the world.The face value of Nothing Ever Happens to the casual listener (which means most Americans, despite being the Del's biggest UK hit) is one of bleakness and despair. Still though, I was surprised that after the band's biggest US hit Roll To Me, the label decided to pull promo on the the next album's single Not Where It's At while the band was mid tour. Too bad, because that song along with Roll To Me could have very well put them on the map. Thanks for the cool page!

David_E · 1 year ago

And thank you for the kind words. I never got the chance to catch Del Amitri live, so I'm terribly jealous.

Occasionally, I'll scan Justin's MySpace page to see if he's swinging through Dallas. Alas, never.

Alex · 1 year ago

Thanks for this! It's always just wonderful to listen through all this records again!