Description
Label Review.
63 tracks featuring Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene, Saint Etienne, Lush, Spiritualized, Boo Radleys, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Sundays, Manic Street Preachers, Spacemen 3, The La’s and many more.
Our Overview.
Following on from the compilations ‘C86’, ‘C87’, ‘C88’ & ‘C89’ comes ‘C90’, Cherry Red Records successful series of compilations charting the development of the UK indie music scene. Over a decade since punk rocked the British musical scene to its foundations and caused an eruption of independently produced records, the scene and a new generation of figurehead artists began to let ambition in and head overground, playing to increasingly large crowds, working with bigger budgets and selling more copies, finding a footing in the UK’s Top Forty, venturing into the USA and, ultimately, creating a mainstream audience now primed for credible, guitar-tinged pop. Meanwhile, an underground revolution in clubland began to push towards the commercial same space, resulting in an inevitable fusion of songcraft and dancefloor aesthetics.
‘C90’ captures perfectly the moment these tribes began to coalesce. From the opening, club-friendly rendition of The Charlatans’ “Polar Bear” to The La’s knowingly backward looking “Timeless Melody” and all in-between, this is the sound of a scene dropping the raincoats, dropping acid and aiming for domination. 1990 was the start of a new decade when the Indie scene was dominated by Madchester and the arrival of Shoegaze and with nods towards grunge and what would become known as Britpop, plus hints of a proto-laddism peering out from between the cracks in a post-Smiths aesthetic, the sound of 1990, it could be argued, set the tone for the remainder of the decade.
‘C90’ is a snapshot of a unique moment in time. A piece of history. The sound of a country putting the hard-biting 1980s behind it, embracing the Daisy Age and looking to move forwards.
Tracklisting:
Disc One: Polar Bear - The Charlatans / Sway - Ocean Colour Scene / Perfume - Paris Angels / The Storm - World Of Twist / Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne / It’s On - Flowered Up / Get Higher - Moonflowers / My Rising Star - Northside / Wonderment – Thousand Yard Stare / Thoughtforms - Lush / Anyway That You Want Me - Spiritualized / Swansong - Boo Radleys / Juggernaut Rides – Swervedriver / Avalyn I - Slowdive / Half-Life, Remembered – Pale Saints / Something More (Ambient Version) - Chapterhouse / Can’t Be Sure – The Sundays / She Sings Alone – See See Rider / Please Let Me Go – The Popinjays
Disc Two: New Art Riot - Manic Street Preachers / Aim - Ned’s Atomic Dustbin / Pop Song - Th’ Faith Healers / Beam Me Up – New Fast Automatic Daffodils / To Kill A Slow Girl Walking – The Telescopes / Welcome To Dead Town – The Seers / Listen - Honey Smugglers / Seems To Me - Milltown Brothers / Big City (Waves Of Joy) (Demo) – Spacemen 3 / I Fell In Love Last Night – Heavenly / Sean Connery – James Dean Driving Experience / Take - Raintree County / Noah’s Ark – Brighter / Amnesia – Something Pretty Beautiful / Earthwheel - Sandkings / If I Could Shine - The Sweetest Ache / Mad As Love - Greenhouse / Crazy Mixed Up Kid - Mousefolk / These Things Happen – Action Painting! / Strange - All Over The Place / I Know - Bark Psychosis
Disc Three: Timeless Melody – The La’s / Highrise Love – The Darkside / Everything About You – My Jealous God / Sleep - Eternal / Potboiler - Penelope’s Web / Dead Like You – The Steamkings / Twenty-Fifteen – The Sunflowers / Beside The Sea – The Kennedy Pill / Little Valley Town - Jane From Occupied Europe / Sunday Never Comes Around – Po! / Good Morning – Jane Pow / Learning To Keep My Mouth Shut - How Many Beans Make Five / Lovesville Usa - Montgomery Clifts / She Made Everything Groovy – The Ogdens / Out Of My Mind – Avo-8 / Darkest Blue – Gentle Despite / My Heart Is Where My Home Is - The Chrysalids / When I Find You – Little Red Schoolhouse / Nothing In Your Heart – Life With Patrick / What Is More Than Life – Horse Latitudes / I Really Do Love You Penelope – Hey Paulette / Missing You – The Ammonites / Cheat On Me – The Emotionals