For their first album in the 2000s, The Charlatans initially decamped to LA to work with producer Danny Saber. As noted in interviews, the funk and soul sounds of LA combined with sunshine and copious amounts of cocaine influenced Wonderland. The first album with keyboardist Tony Rogers lets go of their organ sound and instead embraces electronica with throbbing basslines.
“You’re So Pretty – We’re So Pretty” shows this new sound right away. It is The Charlatans version of The Rolling Stones going disco or Primal Scream going to Memphis in the early 90s. On several tracks, singer Tim Burgess adopts a falsetto vocal with single “Love Is The Key” being the most successful as the band stomps along behind him. “I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You” is the track most overtly influenced by LA’s funk scene and includes terrific instrumental passages in the second half of the song.
Several songs like “And If I Fall” and “Wake Up” have really strong choruses that keep the album buoyant. “A Man Needs To Be Told” is a softer one with acoustic guitar as Burgess sings, “A man needs to be told/There is a world going on”. A bit on the nose with the childlike Burgess personality. Like the finest of white powders that rob a person’s soul, so too does it rob this album of the typical life affirming anthems that The Charlatans produced throughout the 90s. However, the band wanted to change things up which they accomplished on the mostly successful Wonderland.
7.5/10
The Light Appears 