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Rating: Let's pretend, for a few minutes, that it's 1995. Grunge is practically the only style with which a white guy and his band can hope to grab the attention of those who still find twenty bucks for a CD. What would you do if you were in one of those bands? I forgot to tell you that you're not even American: would you pretend to come from Hendrix's city too? In hindsight, given the miserable end of certain clone bands, chances are you'd choose to stay in your place. Or maybe not, you might try to release two albums that hit the charts, marry a brash beauty like Gwen Stefani, have her give birth a couple of times with the knowledge that you've already earned the money to send them, one day, to study at the University of Camerino. Whatever choice you make, I would understand you and, deep in my heart, forgive you.
What I really don't understand, however, is why Catherine Wheel, a band that was fundamentally shoegaze until then, already with a couple of spectacular albums under their belt, at that time also made this decisive step towards such radio-friendly sounds. Tired of being niche, cult? Disappointed because they saw themselves surpassed/overwhelmed at home by Britpop (and by Radiohead who were opening their concerts) and in America by grunge?
Britpop is a genre with an undoubted derivative matrix that has never been in question; the protagonists of grunge, as discussed extensively on this site, didn't invent anything; if anything, they synthesized decades of anti-divas and alternative and more or less unpolished music... But even there, nothing truly original. So why, I ask, would a band from perhaps the only truly original subgenre of rock in the '90s (shoegaze, indeed) choose to equate themselves, to align, perhaps even in the hope of blending into the grunge whirlwind?
In detail, the tracklist of this "Happy Days" from '95: "God Inside My Head" would fit well on an A Perfect Circle CD (whose founders were active at that time); in "Way Down" they sound a bit like Hole; "Little Muscle" is a cross between a sweetened garage rock and the Foo Fighters of "All My Life." Even "Empty Head" is another garage grunge, while "Receive" is a mid-tempo that seems like an outtake from "Siamese Dream." And it continues, eh! "My Exhibition," in certain ways, seems like "Do The Evolution" by Pearl Jam; "Hole" is another rock that's as hard hard as it is easy easy. And in the final "Kill My Soul," Dickinson and company mix their artistic peaks with the "grunge beat" of certain works by Screaming Trees.
All done with great skill, and with more than decent inspiration. Probably, if released in '92, it would have been a work on par with the milestones of the (sub-)genre, but in 1992 Catherine Wheel certainly weren't thinking of synthesizing decades of others' independence, rather they were intent, with the sublime "Ferment," on declaring their own to the whole world, even at the cost of leaving the glory of top chart positions to others. And so Cobain is a legend, Grohl, Vedder and friends are great realities even today; on the other side, Radiohead unites both audience and critics, and My Bloody Valentine is the first (and for many also the only) name that comes to mind when thinking of shoegaze. And of Catherine Wheel, except here on DeBaser, of course, no trace.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Heal (06:13)
It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal
It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal
I can climb a tree and push up through the leaves 'cos
Only when I try am I happier to see
My head's in some kind of space where boyhood used to be
It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal
But it's all a lie and I've never felt so sad
There's a streak of melancholy running down my back
And there's a great mistrust that borders round the man
I call it strange from a boy who never left his head
It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal
And everyone needs someone to live by
Everyone needs someone to live by
But it's all a lie, it's a lie to make you beg
For something more for something better than you've had
And I wish I knew
I wish I knew how to change
'Cos everyone needs someone to live by
Everyone needs someone
Everyone needs someone to live by
Everyone needs someone
Everyone needs someone
It's how high you are and the time it takes to heal
07 My Exhibition (02:27)
There is an attitude I'm guilty of
Kept deeper, deeper, deeper
I only let it out when people piss me off
It's funny funny funny
I can be, I can be what you want me to be
I can be, I can be what you want me to be
I can be, I can be what you want me to be
My My My exhibition
I'm such a nice boy, such a charming man
But I'm going crazy with these snakes and stuff
I charm the pants of anyone I can
But this time I'm gonna...
My exhibition
A real condition
Yoga position
My exhibition
You're pissing me off, your pissing me off
Deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper
I can be, I can be what you want me to be
It's my exhibition
Stop you're pissing me off
Stop you're pissing me off
Stop you're pissing me off
09 Shocking (03:58)
Old style in it seems they've brought you everything
There's an old style in of days when we were all thirteen
Yeah these pictures of love are a testament to the memories
When I think of you it's shocking
Oooh it's shocking
Oooh
Now it's "Oh my god this time he crushed some aspirin"
Dissolved in love he always made the best of it!
Yeah he spilled it all to The Sun months before punk had
Taken off
He had the pictures to prove
What a soaraway dude is guilty of
When I think of you it's shocking
Oooh it's shocking Oooh it's shocking
But won't you listen to me, why can't you believe
That you're breaking my heart
And these moments were part of our lives
And it destroys me to see you destroy them
Every time
When I think of you it's shocking
Oooh it's shocking Oooh it's shocking
So you wanna know what's my crime?
Love, I'm guilty every time
Love, this love, I'm guilty every time
Love, this love, I'm guilty every time
Love this love, Love this love
It's shocking
10 Love Tips Up (03:55)
Don't feel sad don't feel blue
It's supposed to be
All I feel comes back off you
And I'm so happy
'Cos I feel I'm at 45 degrees
That's when love tips up for me
And keep it understood the elevations good
And love tips up for me
Please let me kiss your peculiar lips
For some sympathy
Though I've always maintained
That you've always been stranger than me
Is that the way it's meant to be?
I'm at 45 degrees
And that's when love tips up for me
So keep it understood the elevations good
And love tips up for me
Yeah don't it make you feel
Yeah don't it make you feel
Yeah don't it make you feel
High
'Cos I feel I'm at 45 degrees
That's when love tips up for me
When all of this is done it's dizzy I've become
And love tips up for me
Yeah for me
11 Judy Staring At The Sun (03:56)
Smacked up again behind the door
Begging please give me some more
A vein that's open for the day
Feel the pulse beneath the skin
And smiling as it all begins
Oh where have you been?
Judy's staring at the sun
Judy's staring at the sun
Judy's fantasy has come
So amplify this little one
She's a volume freak
She hears as much as she can see
And what she sees she can't believe
It's just what Judy needs a moment of release
To give her peace peace peace
Judy's starting at the sun
Judy's day passed out of sight
Judy will be suffering tonight
She's suffering
She passed by and said goodbye to him
And in a rare and lucid state
She said my days are unoriginal
I wanna fade, fade, fade
She's suffering
Judy's staring at the sun
Judy's day passed out of sight
Judy will be suffering tonight
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Other reviews
By Nevermind
The grunge influences of the period are very apparent here, but unlike other bands, Catherine Wheel doesn’t try to imitate but invents their own style.
The entire album is worth listening to; there’s not a single song that lowers the standard or makes you want to hit the skip button.
