Album: The Great Eastern
Artist: The Delgados
Born: Motherwell, North Lanarkshire
Released: April 2000
Genre: Dream Pop
Although dreamy, orchestral pop was very much an American phenomenon around the turn of the century, there was one group across the Atlantic that developed a very similar sound. In the 5-6 years up until the release of The Great Eastern, The Delgados had set up their own label in Glasgow called Chemikal Underground, releasing records by Arab Strap, Mogwai and many other celebrated Scottish indie acts. The band also released two of their own LPs, Domestiques and Peloton (titles which, like the group's name, were inspired by the Tour de France), prior to The Great Eastern. Peloton is itself a great record, with captivating tracks like The Actress and Pull The Wires From The Wall, and featured the brilliant vocal sparring of Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock. The Great Eastern retained this element, as well as the great melodies, but also marked a change of direction into a more sophisticated sound, after Mercury Rev's David Fridmann was brought in as producer. Although not the best track on the record, American Trilogy is a good example of this new approach, with its dreamy opening and soft, mournful vocals ("At times it seems I will not help / but it's just that I must save myself / from fear that blankets like mist") followed by strings and a rousing chorus. Woodward's fey vocals are very reminiscent of Belle & Sebastian. The song was originally supposed to be called The Optimist, but the band thought it sounded like Elvis' American Trilogy, so changed the name of the single, which reached No.61 in the UK charts.
The middle of the record contains a great run of four songs: American Trilogy, Reasons For Silence (Ed's Song), Thirteen Gliding Principles and No Danger. Reasons For Silence sounds like the dreamy folk of Nick Drake and features a wonderful vocal performance by Pollock. The vocal trading between Woodward and Pollock on Thirteen Gliding Principles is one of the record's highlights, shifting from dreamy harmony to noise rock. This is The Delgados at their most experimental, especially the heavy section at the end of the song, which has metal guitar jabs that all of a sudden come to a halt. All of this serves as a brilliant prelude to the soothing, lullaby opening to No Danger, another of the album's highlights, and a song which gathers pace and morphs into a stirring middle section. Like the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, The Delgados weren't afraid to make liberal use of exotic instruments like the mellotron and dulcimer, to create an otherworldly atmosphere. Make Your Move ensures a stunning ending to the album, with its wistful piano chords, and is a taster of the solo records that Pollock would release after she left The Delgados in 2005. This album is not only a brilliant work of orchestral pop, but it also marked the start of a renaissance in Scottish music in the first half of the noughties.
Although dreamy, orchestral pop was very much an American phenomenon around the turn of the century, there was one group across the Atlantic that developed a very similar sound. In the 5-6 years up until the release of The Great Eastern, The Delgados had set up their own label in Glasgow called Chemikal Underground, releasing records by Arab Strap, Mogwai and many other celebrated Scottish indie acts. The band also released two of their own LPs, Domestiques and Peloton (titles which, like the group's name, were inspired by the Tour de France), prior to The Great Eastern. Peloton is itself a great record, with captivating tracks like The Actress and Pull The Wires From The Wall, and featured the brilliant vocal sparring of Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock. The Great Eastern retained this element, as well as the great melodies, but also marked a change of direction into a more sophisticated sound, after Mercury Rev's David Fridmann was brought in as producer. Although not the best track on the record, American Trilogy is a good example of this new approach, with its dreamy opening and soft, mournful vocals ("At times it seems I will not help / but it's just that I must save myself / from fear that blankets like mist") followed by strings and a rousing chorus. Woodward's fey vocals are very reminiscent of Belle & Sebastian. The song was originally supposed to be called The Optimist, but the band thought it sounded like Elvis' American Trilogy, so changed the name of the single, which reached No.61 in the UK charts.
The middle of the record contains a great run of four songs: American Trilogy, Reasons For Silence (Ed's Song), Thirteen Gliding Principles and No Danger. Reasons For Silence sounds like the dreamy folk of Nick Drake and features a wonderful vocal performance by Pollock. The vocal trading between Woodward and Pollock on Thirteen Gliding Principles is one of the record's highlights, shifting from dreamy harmony to noise rock. This is The Delgados at their most experimental, especially the heavy section at the end of the song, which has metal guitar jabs that all of a sudden come to a halt. All of this serves as a brilliant prelude to the soothing, lullaby opening to No Danger, another of the album's highlights, and a song which gathers pace and morphs into a stirring middle section. Like the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, The Delgados weren't afraid to make liberal use of exotic instruments like the mellotron and dulcimer, to create an otherworldly atmosphere. Make Your Move ensures a stunning ending to the album, with its wistful piano chords, and is a taster of the solo records that Pollock would release after she left The Delgados in 2005. This album is not only a brilliant work of orchestral pop, but it also marked the start of a renaissance in Scottish music in the first half of the noughties.
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