The Charlatans: Wonderland on CD

From Baggy to Bel-Air – what a long strange trip it’s been for The Charlatans.

Nervous breakdowns, embezzlement, incarceration and tragedy have been no strangers to the Middlewich Five over the past decade or so and yet it would appear that, despite the kind of setbacks that would have blown most bands out of the water, The Charlatans just seem to go from strength to strength.

Wonderland, the band’s seventh album sees a move away from the Stones/Dylan-influences of recent years with a broadening the palette to embrace Soul, Funk and even Country in a bid to out-do the likes of Lambchop at their own game. With former Black Grape producer Danny Sabre at the controls, Wonderland recreates The Charlatans as the newest funk-soul brothers on the block with Tim Burgess as a proto-Prince whooping up a veritable storm while the rest of the band play out of their collective skins.

Virtually every track is a peach – “Ballad Of the Band” (sadly, not a Felt cover) is a beautiful string-driven thing, “If I Fall”, a sublimely sweet confection that summons up the ghost of Dexy’s; current single “Love Is The Key” you will already know, love and presumably own if you know what’s good for you and “Judas”, well “Judas”, quite simply, is the best song the band have ever recorded bar none.

There is an intelligence and maturity at work here that elevates the band to a level previously only hinted at in the past. Whilst drawing on a number of (impeccable) sources for musical inspiration, The Charlatans have developed a sound which is unmistakably their own. The move to Los Angeles for Burgess (and now guitarist Mark Collins) has paid off dividends. They stride and soar where once they merely shuffled and on “Wonderland” exude a supreme confidence where once there was merely bluff and bluster. Ironically, given their name, The Charlatans are, at last, the real thing… For that we should be truly grateful.