Product Description

'You Cross My Path' is the tenth album by indie legends TheCharlatans. Initially released as a groundbreaking free full-album download, this album has been hailed in some quarters as their best album since 1999's 'Us And Us Only'. Includes the singles 'Oh Vanity' and 'You Cross My Path'.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Oh! Vanity,
2. Bad Days,
3. Mis-takes,
4. The Misbegotten,
5. A Day For Letting Go,
6. You Cross My Path,
7. The Missing Beats,
8. My Name Is Despair,
9. BIRD,
10. This Is The End

Disc 2:

1. A Margin Of Sanity,
2. Acid In The Tea,
3. You Cross My Path (live),
4. Bad Days (live),
5. Mis-Takes (live),
6. Oh! Vanity (live),
7. This Is The End (live)
8. You Cross My Path (video),
9. Oh! Vanity (video)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #974 in Music
• Released on: 2008-05-12
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Enhanced

Customer Reviews

Charlatans hit the high notes
The Charlatans have come a long way since "The Only One I Know" 18 years ago. Sure, they've had their ups and downs in the interim, but who hasn't This album could described as a "return to form", for want of a better phrase. "You cross my path" is quite simply a superb album and its getting heavy rotation on my sound system right now. You could be forgiven for mistaking the album for New Order at times. There are five great tracks worthy of inclusion on a future re-release of "Forever": Oh! Vanity, Bad Days, The Misbegotten, Bird and The End. My absolute favourite is Bad Days with its rumbling bass intro and driving rhythm. The live version on Disc 2 sounds great, too.

back on form, at last!
i've like the charlies since the late 1980's, although not my most favourite of bands, their stuffs been at times pretty good. Unfortunatley their last album was a load of boring cr*p and i was about to give up on them , but this CD is pretty good, Tims vocals are as weak as ever, sounds like Jagger on a bad day, if Tim was ever that lucky.Back on form, I hope so!

Their best for years!
As is often acknowledged The Charlatans have, throughout their now lengthy existence, always seem to have been also rans to more famous/successful bands. First they were somewhat eclipsed by The Stone Roses, who they vocally at least, somewhat resembled. Then it was Oasis, and as we entered the new millenium a whole host of new indie bands emerged to outsell and eclipse them. Like the Bluetones, a similar worthy but not massively successful band, the Charlatans just kept plodding on releasing an album regularly every two years. Incredible as it seems The 'Charlies' actually preceded Britpop and are now nearly twenty years old and have outlasted almost all their contemporaries. James, another long lasting and middlingly successful band who emerged around the same time, have recently reformed after a lengthy sabbatical, but the Charlies have never been away. Furthermore, they've had very few line up changes; this in itself is a real achievement.
After discovering the Roses only after their demise and quickly acquiring their limited catalogue I was eagerly looking for similar bands; consequently I retrospectively purchased all the Charlatans albums up to and including Us And Us Only, which was the first of their albums actually released after I'd discovered them. However, after listening to them closely I concluded that, although good, there was something slightly lacking in the band. Although the lightweight vocals resemble the Stone Roses, musically they aren't that similar, and I would say the Charlatans never actually made anything so memorable as the Roses classic first album. I think their problem was that they were often more about the sound and the groove rather than the songs; for example they did feature a number of instrumentals, often a sign that a band are having some difficulty producing enough actual good songs; consequently many of their albums although pretty decent, were often just not quite strong enough, and I would argue they never really made a real classic. I actually sold their second album 'Between 10 and 11th', however I always retained an interest in their releases.
I'm afraid I viewed Wonderland, their next release after Us And Us Only, in the same way as most of the critics who described it as their worst yet. I was so relieved at the improvment of Up At The Lake that I bought it. However, after several very careful listens I concluded that this too was a rather patchy effort, although it does contain one of my very favourite Charlatans tracks, As I Watch You In Disbelief', so I sold that too. Again I loved the single Blackened Blue Eyes from their last album, Simpatico, but the rest of the album was nowhere near the same standard and was actually another pretty weak effort.
So we come to Cross My Path, their latest. I've never totally given up on the band and I would say that this album is just about as good as anything they've ever done, perhaps surpassed only by The Charlatans and Telling Stories. After several listens it has to be said that it's still not perfect however; the songs are slightly masked by the production and the vocals are as ever lightweight and slightly buried. The singles Oh Vanity and The Misbegotten are strong tracks, although the other single, the title track is a little too frenetic for me. I also like Missing Beats (Of A Generation), Bird and This Is The End. One problem the band have always suffered from though is there isn't much light and shade, with nearly everything being played at the same tempo. They don't really do ballads and the only slow song, My Name Is Despair is a real dirge and the worst thing on the album. The release is also quite short, even if one adds the two bonus tracks on the limited edition 2 disc version, one of which is an instrumental, whilst the other Acid In The Tea is quite a strong number.
Not perfect then, but certainly their best album of the 00's and probably as good as they're ever going to get again.
If only Blackened Blue Eyes and As I Watch You In Disbelief had been released on this album!