Charlatans - Forever. The Singles Album Review

The Charlatans
Forever. The Singles
Album Review

The Charlatans always had short shrift in the Mancunian fame stakes - somewhere behind Oasis, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays - and it would be fair to say, that, like James, the sheer breadth and quality of their singles will probably take you by surprise. If you've been even a casual observer of popular music over the past 20 years, you will know songs like North Country Boy, Just When You're Thinking Things Over and One To Another, as well as the biggest hit The Only One I Know.

This collection is the first time that their singles from all of their companies have been collected, and there is an almost intensely timeless quality from beginning to end, where the Hammond organ and seductively hypnotic rhythm drive anthemic verses forward. Indeed, it doesn't take much of a listen to this disc to suggest that Oasis and James are the only other Manchester bands who could pull together a collection of such quality from their back catalogue.

4/5

Mike Rea