Thursday, March 2

THE DELGADOS (1994-2004)


[This is the second installment in our "R.I.P. [fill in band-name here]" series - an effort to celebrate those artists that, sadly, are no longer with us. Of course, they're not literally "dead," generally - just victims of that most nefarious of band-busting bugaboos ... "creative differences." Ah, the humanity.]

I didn't discover the Scottish band the Delgados until 2002, when they released the album Hate. Little did I know that they'd been together eight years by then, or that they'd only have a couple years left to linger. If I'd been compiling Top 10 album lists at the time, I'm sure Hate would have ended up occupying one of the more paramount positions that year. Listening to it today for the first time in a long time, I find it still holds up remarkably well. Some of that no doubt has to do with producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev; The Flaming Lips), who began collaborating with the band on 2000's The Great Eastern.

The Delgados are one of those groups - like Stars and Rilo Kiley - who trade off male/female lead vocals. Perhaps it says something about me that, in all three examples, I prefer the female singer to the male. In the Delgados' case, that means that Emma Pollock gets my vote over Alun Woodward. Thus, all four of the songs I'm offering today feature Ms. Pollock on vox. Sorry, Mr. Woodward.

From the LP Hate, 2002 >>>
[MP3] "Coming in from the Cold"
[MP3] "Woke from Dreaming"

From the LP Universal Audio, 2004 >>>
[MP3] "I Fought the Angels"

From the LP The Great Eastern, 2000 >>>
[MP3] "Make Your Move" [Twin Peaks Mix]

1 comment:

Chris said...

Ahh, wonderful... thank you! Coming In From The Cold is still such a lovely lovely song!