Review:
“While most of [Del Amitri’s] ‘90s alterna-bent peers have been sprinting for the finish line, gravel-throated Justin Currie and company have been mincing through the forest, tortoise-slow and without a care in the world…The roadside is littered with the carcasses of countless also-ran hares, and – lo and behold! – here comes Del Amitri, gallumphing down the final stretch with another rock-solid release, the last laugh on all those silly trendmongers.” TL Their previous album, Twisted, “unexpectedly generated an American Top Ten hit for Del Amitri with ‘Roll to Me.’ Not surprisingly, that song provides the touchstone for Some Other Sucker’s Parade.” STE This album “doesn’t offer anything new, but that’s not bad, because the group’s music is appealing as it is.” STE This is “a collection of pleasant, jangly guitar-pop, with nice melodies and gentle hooks” STE that “cover a gamut of rock ‘n’ roll styles and observations on life’s vicissitudes and poignant ironies.” LD
By now Del Amitri has effectively become “a duo with a band of backup players” AL since the only constants through five albums have been Currie and guitarist Iain Harvie. “Guitarist Jon McLoughlin and drummer Ashley Soan had never been in the studio with Del Amitri before, having joined Currie, Harvie and keyboardist Andy Altson on the tour for the last disc, Twisted.” LD True to the impermanence of Del Amitri, “both Soan and McLoughlin left soon after the album's recording.” WK
“Intended to communicate” WK “the level of intensity of a Del Amitri performance,” LD “the album deliberately used few studio effects in favour of a ‘raw’ feel. ‘Absolutely as few overdubs as possible,’ confirmed Iain Harvie in an October 1997 interview with Guitarist magazine. ‘Probably about 80 per cent of the songs on this record don’t have overdubs, apart from the vocals obviously, with all the harmonies, and maybe the guitar solo if there was a really dreadful mistake in the middle that we just couldn’t live with. Wherever possible, we recorded with our live format of bass, drums, two guitars and keyboards for most of the songs.’” WK
Currie elaborates on the making of the record. “‘Fans often ask why we throw away our best songs on B sides istead of using them as album tracks or A-sides, and I know exactly what they mean. A certain amount of pressure and premeditation goes into A-sides, whereas you tend to relax a bit for the B-sides. So l decided to approach this one like a bunch of B-sides: just relax and record them fast.’” MJ
The result is “a consistent album whose vision of grown-up rock nirvana never loses focus.” MJ “There’s nothing avant-garde or groundbreaking,” JF but “the songs are instantly contagious and hummable” LD and “mine the conservative world of adult pop.” JF “Currie’s singing is a combination of seductive, sarcastic and soothing.” LD His “warm, masculine tone communicates the assurance and vulnerability of a great leading man – which makes the ‘speaker’ painted by his lyrics, a witty cad, that much more dangerously appealing.” JF In addition, “the instrumentation is creative and adventurous.” LD
Del Amitri’s sound is “part 60’s-retro, part harp-fueled pub rock, part hook-shrewd alternative, and always a-jangle. Currie’s voice sort of hides in the mix, peeking out at key emotive moments while keeping even the most delicate ballads,” TL such as “Mother Nature’s Writing, [which] soars with its high harmonies,” BR “not only afloat, but alive with soulful nuance.” TL
Lead single Not Where It’s At is “a playful, retro-spiced rocker” BL filled with “jangly, Byrds-like guitars and self-deprecation.” LD Currie says, “‘that song sounded like a single to us…so we put it first on the album, making damn sure the record company were gonna choose it!’” BM The song “perfectly pools the band’s winningest attributes: sweet, streamlined harmonies; equally rich, layered guitars; an uncanny instinct for the drop-dead chorus; and a flair for the obvious.” HR “The concise and contagious chorus is thick with harmonies and ringing guitars, the kind that will appeal to popsters with a taste for ‘60s flavors and giddy, straightforward boy-meets-girl lyrics.” BL “Currie’s wounded barfly routine can verge on the tiresome at times, [but] it’s perfect here. ‘She don’t want me, ‘cause I’m not where it’s at,’ Currie sings, flitting playfully between self-pity and sarcasm. ‘I don’t have my finger on the pulse of my generation / I just got my hand on my heart, I know no better location.’” HR
That song and “Cruel Light of Day are both upbeat pop songs about feelings of rejection associated with not living up to someone’s expectations. Those songs and many of the others on the album have a country-rock feel to them that could place the band's home as Oklahoma and not Glasgow.” AL Currie says, “‘I wrote ‘Cruel Light’ in a broom cupboard before a gig in Virginia. The rest of the band were down the pub at this point. We weren’t due on until one in the morning, but it’s like that in America. Club gigs start really late. Usually we don’t write on the road.’” TT
“The glorious legacy of the Everly Brothers haunts the harmonies, although…Currie’s lead vocals are so frazzled by’90s angst that this album couldn’t have been made until now” Mojo). “The group’s love of American rock comes out loud and clear on the rousing, pure pop flavored Won’t Make It Better,” LD which Currie says he thinks is “‘one of the best tracks on the record.’” LD
“When the influences of Currie and…Harvie collide – like on the title track, which feels like Buffalo Springfield pouring pints for vintage Crowded House in a Beatles-owned tavern – you get a fleeting glimpse of the magic this band possesses, the charm that makes Del Amitri so extraordinarily special.” TL On that particular song, they turn “yet another loser’s lament into a Dylanesque ode to drowning your sorrows in a bottle with…Harvie’s Ron Wood riffs underlining the tongue-in-cheek self-pity of lines like, ‘Patience they say, is a saintly virtue / But hell, why should I wait / ‘Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker’s parade.’” LD
There’s also “the southern-rock boogie of Funny Way to Win [and] the television-meets-Rolling Stones lyricism of” LD “pretty, but never sticky-sweet, songs like Through All That Nothing.” SC The latter is one of those “rare finds today for fans of eloquent pop.” SC
Lucky Guy, with its “sweet country strains,” LD “brilliantly underscores his particular talent to compress life’s hardest ironies into sweet bursts of pop.” JF Currie says it “‘is quite an old song, actually. We wrote it back in ’94.’” LD On the song, “he fantasizes about being both husband and romantic interloper to the same woman, playing two roles to ward off the depression of leading a single life.” JF
“Meanwhile, those who may have mistakenly tossed Del Amitri off as just another pop band will be surprised by the uptempo, cranked-up numbers, like…Medicine” LD and the “sly and sassy” BR High Times. The latter is an example of “one of the only times [Currie] steps out of character,” TL but even that “brief falsetto strut…gets ensnared in the track’s already sinister slink.” TL He says “‘I don’t really know what ‘High Times’ is about. It sort of wanders all over the place, it’s just a lot of rubbish, really. It definitely contains a sort of sarcastic reference to ‘neo-hippies,’ or to anything kind of ‘new age.’’” LD
The songs on Some Other Sucker’s Parade may be less political than earlier Del Amitri releases, but they still deliver their share of melancholy ballads, portraying a range of feeling [such as] the emptiness of No Family Man.” AL On that one, Currie says he was trying “‘to write a song for all the people out there that don’t want to have kids. There’s a lot of us, really. I don’t’ think there’s anything wrong with people who do want to have them, good for them, it’s a brave thing to do.’” LD
There’s also the “uncomprehending ache of Make It Always Be Too Late” MJ which Currie says “‘is pure Beatles, really, in terms of production…it’s kind of copying the sound of ‘It’s Only Love,’ without really copying the song.’” LD He continues, saying “‘It manages to be an emotional song without having to mention love.’” TT
“When the sympathetic strings kick in behind the organ on” MJ “the alluring, even soulful” BR “mid-tempo, self-deprecating tear-jerker What I Think She Sees” BM “you’ve got to ditch the Kleenex and break out the triple-thick kitchen roll.” MJ Currie frankly states, ‘Just because I’m here don't mean I can’t run out that door.’” BR
“Some Other Sucker’s Parade won’t win Del Amitri any new fans, but to longtime followers, it’s a welcome addition to their library.” STE
Review Source(s):
- BM Bassist Magazine. Interview with Justin Currie. (8/97)
- BL Billboard Magazine review of “Not Where It’s At.” (5/10/97)
- SC Steve Ciabattoni, CMJ Magazine “Some Other Sucker’s Parade.” (8/97)
- LD Lydia Carole DeFretos, East Coast Rocker Magazine. “An Interview with Justin Currie of Del Amitri: Don’t Rain on Their Parade.” (July 2-9, 1997)
- STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
- JF Jim Farber, New York Daily News. “Don’t Rain on Their ‘Parade’: Scotland’s Best band, Del Amitri, is poised to break through.” (7/6/97)
- TL Tom Lanham, Launch review of SOSP (8/97)
- AL Allison Linn, The Olympian, “Del Amitri’s pop an antidote for darkness.” (8/15/97)
- MJ Mojo Magazine “Del Amitri – Some Other Sucker’s Parade.” (6/97)
- BR Bob Remstein, Wall of Sound
- HR Hobart Rowland, Houston Press “Some Other Sucker’s Parade.” (7/17/97)
- TT Teletext Articles. “Justin on SOSP.”
- WK Wikipedia
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