Following on from the Del Amitri re-issues of Change Everything, Twisted and Waking Hours, we'll be re-issuing Some Other Suckers Parade and Can You Do Me Good? on the 11 July.
Some Other Sucker’s Parade is a fascinating addition to Del Amitri’s catalogue. Originally released on A&M Records in June 1997, the album captures a group secure of their success and gently kicking back against formula. This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1997 A&M UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.
The group, led by bassist-vocalist-writer Justin Currie and writer-guitarist Iain Harvie, had become equally known for their gentle pop and acoustic ballads as their jangling melodic rock. Overseen by Breeders producer Mark Freegard, the album was broadly recorded live and has touches of Crazy Horse and The Faces about it. Acoustic guitars were banned. The harmonious onslaught paid off: Some Other Sucker’s Parade – complete with its much-loved singles “Not Where It’s At” and “Some Other Sucker’s Parade” – entered the charts at No 6 in the UK. “I really love the record, because it’s probably our least pretentious,” Currie said in 1998.
Released for the first time on vinyl 2002's Can You Do Me Good? saw Del Amitri return after a 48 month hiatus with a new sound and a remarkable, yet almost entirely overlooked album. For the album's debut on LP it has been pressed on high quality 180g vinyl and includes a full-colour 16 page lyric booklet.
By 2002, the pop world had turned; four years earlier, Del Amitri had released Hatful Of Rain, their greatest hits collection marking more-or-less a decade of success. Can You Do Me Good? relied on keyboards, samples and drum machines as much as previous albums centered on electric and acoustic guitars. Featuring its soulful lead single “Just Before You Leave”, Can You Do Me Good? is truly fascinating, and could well have been the group’s biggest album ever had it come five years earlier. “I’ve got cash and prizes, but I don’t know who I am,” Currie sings on “Cash & Prizes”; and the song seems to encapsulate the album.
