Review of All Change - Deluxe Edition Album by Cast

Cast's debut All Change gets the deluxe treatment just in time for the reunion. It must irk John Power that Cast have never been afforded the critical claim of his previous band The La's. When you consider their debut album is one of the classics of all time, it's easy to see why Cast are overlooked in the critical stakes. However to view Cast as also-rans is to do them a serious injustice as they were a good band in their own right as demonstrated by this album.

Cast All Change - Deluxe Edition Album

What you have to consider, at the time the Cast album outsold the La's and put Cast into another league if not in musical or songwriting terms, certainly in commercial terms. The time of release was right in the full throttle of the Britpop boom and Cast released All Change to a ready-made audience of Oasis and Ocean Colour Scene fans hungry for more. The album became the fastest selling debut for their label Polydor - no mean feat when you consider they also released the debut albums of Hendrix, The Who and The Jam. The Who are themselves a big influence on Cast. It was also produced by the legendary John Leckie who includes The Stone Roses, The Verve and Kula Shaker amongst his many credits.

So how does All Change sound in 2010? It's aged pretty damn well actually. When you consider a lot of the bands from this period of time went by the wayside and the music aged pretty quickly. Alright and Fine Time are pretty good sing-a-longs. Walk Away is just beautiful. However the highlight of the album is none of the 4 singles that came from this album but a glorious slice of scouse psychedelic pop called 'Tell It Like It Is' which wouldn't have gone amiss with the La's debut itself.

CD2 is mainly for the fans - what you get here is assorted demos, live tracks which actually highlight what a cracking live band Cast were - plus the legendary outtake All My Days which whilst pleasing Cast fans, will do very little for those new to Cast and it's easy to see why they left it off the original album.

All in all, the deluxe edition is a nice package for those who were there the first time and in need of a little nostalgia, or those discovering them for the very first time.

7/10

Scott Causer

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