Cooking Vinyl
2006
The Bluetones
About This Album
At the height of Brit-pop in 1996, few would have pegged the Bluetones as a band that would stick around for a decade, but persevere they have, weathering a fall from fashion around the time of their second album Return to the Last Chance Saloon, and then soldiering on through, building a loyal audience without ever really changing or registering on a pop culture radar. Just because they were out of the spotlight doesn't mean they were making bad music; it just meant that they had become a working band, slowly and steadily working on their craft through albums and tours. That steady work pays off on their fifth album, simply titled The Bluetones. Not that this 2006 record is different from what they've done before -- this is very close in spirit and sound to their 1996 debut, Expecting to Fly -- but they've stripped away the neo-Madchester flourishes of their early work and the artier dalliances of their turn-of-the-century records, leaving behind a good, straight-ahead guitar pop band. As always, the Bluetones' biggest asset is their sheer likeability -- they're a group of normal guys, something they celebrate on the funny, charming "Baby, Back Up" where they admonish a new girlfriend with "I thought you were cool, but you are just weird.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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