The Delgados - 'Peloton'

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I bought this album on a whim without really knowing anything about the delgados, the week it came out. I listened to it once, then moved house, and it got pushed to the bottom of the pile, and I never really got round to giving it another chance. I'm about to give it a second listen though, any minute now, and a quick search has shown that there seems to be quite a lot of love for it around here, (although I don't think it's had a thread of its own). So. Is it great?

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

ok, please add the word "why?" to the end of my original question.

― JimD (JimD), Thursday, 7 April 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

It's sort of a gentler, (not folky) folkier, ale-gazing, dazed sing-a-long record. "The Arcane Model" is ridiculously catchy. "Blackpool" is gloriously bleak. Emma Pollock is on it - she's really great, her true greatness shows up a lot earlier on record than Alun's does. I'm rather fond of the squiggly guitar bits on "And So The Talking Stopped" and the strings on "Pull The Wires From The Wall" and the vocal interplay on "Everything Goes Around The Water".

I like it more than "The Great Eastern" anyway. Yes, as can clearly be seen, I'm not Swygart.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I mean that first line - in comparison to the records that came AFTER it.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I LOVED this album. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. I especially love Emma's voice. The following albums tarnished this love somewhat, tho - I blame Dave Fridmann, because blaming the passage of time cuts too close.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Daver, did you listen to "Universal Audio"? It's closer to "Peloton" than the two in between are.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

No, I haven't! Thanks for the heads' up!

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

I like Peloton, but I think that Domestiques is the only Delgados album I enjoy less than Peloton. I think they're getting better and better.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

I first encountered this album while writing for my college newspaper. Just one of the hundreds of the ignored promo CDs looming around the office, I saw the Chemikal Underground stamp and grabbed it without hesitation. I listened to it once and was not blown away. I gave it another chance about a year later, though, and it really grew on me. Now it really ranks highly - certainly my fave Delgados record and one of the best CU releases. The Delgados are one of those bands whose strenghts, while considerable, are very subtle: Thus their magic is often lost on the casual (or impatient) listener.

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

completely great! easily the band's best work. in fact, i recall finding this in a promo bin at a radio station where i worked, putting it on casually, and falling absolutely in love with it. it became the soundtrack to my fascination with this girl in some of my univ. classes. eventually i wrote the delgado's a fawning note about how beautiful i thought the record was. i stand by everything in that note.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

I think we had a "Peloton" vs "Great Eastern" discussion on another thread. But basically all Delgados discussions break into two camps, a) those for whom bigger = better (i.e. TGE, Hate), and b) those for whom -- wrt the Delgados, bigger = overproduced.

"Peloton" seems to fall somewhere in the middle of these two camps.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

I like Hate & Peloton just about equally, for obviously different reasons. Universal Audio is just under that by a hair. I really dug TGE when it came out, but after a while it seemed a tad overcooked. The Friddman effect definitely suits them better on Hate, I believe.

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, these days TGE polarizes people more than any other Delgados album. Its detractors say that it's all bombast with nowhere to go, but even those who like it think that Hate took the same blueprint and improved upon it.

Does anyone here prefer TGE to Hate?

(sorry for the thread derailment)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 7 April 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

what's that twee song on it she sings about liking to read books? I hate that song. It made me hate the Delgados for a good long time. I think they're okay now but their tunes seem too easy for me, somewhat predictable.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

"Safe in knowledge / Safe in college / I know there all there is to know"?

'Pull The Wires From The Wall'. I used to love that song so much (not that line, more for the "When you leave here, leave this way" verse).

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Listen to it and decide for yr fuckenself!

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 7 April 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

I listened to Hate today and it is a wonderful album. I have Peloton as well and I did have TGE but it seems to have gone missing and I have no idea where. A major shame because as I remember it was my favourite of their's, although I don't have UA or Domestiques. Any band that obsessed with cycling get my vote.

― Nick H (Nick H), Thursday, 7 April 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

I think I like TGE the best mainly because it was the first one I heard and I got very attached to it.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Thursday, 7 April 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

i really dislike "the weaker argument defeats the stronger" (or whatever the title is) but "pull the wires" is still an amazing song to my ears.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

I prefer "The Great Eastern" to "Hate." And maybe "Universal Audio" and "Peloton" over "Hate," too, but I haven't listened to "Hate" for a while.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 7 April 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nme.com/news/111981.htm

DELGADOS AMICABLE BREAK UP

The DELGADOS have decided to call it a day after over ten years as a band.

The Glaswegian group have announced that they are splitting amicably, following bassist Stewart Henderson’s decision earlier this year that he did not want to make another album with the band.

The group felt they could not continue without all of their original members.

Delgados released five albums, and band members will continue to run their influential record label Chemikal Underground which celebrates its tenth Anniversary this year.

Songwriters Emma Pollock and Alun Woodward will now pursue individual projects, while drummer Paul Savage will continue production duties at the band’s Chem19 Studios in Hamilton.

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Oh no.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Oh for fucks sake.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

WBS -- we're here for you, man.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

THis is weird, really. On the positive side, Universal Audio's as good a farewell as any. And solo projects, too, that'll be nice. But still. I never felt like this about any other band before or since, so I'll be ever so slightly emotional for a bit, I suspect.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

"Or since"? You only found out 20 mins ago!

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

http://www.samaritans.org.uk/imgs/statement1.gif

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 8 April 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

No, I meant about the way they made me feel when they were still together. The split ain't exactly traumatising, just rather disappointing realy.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Friday, 8 April 2005 17:18 (twenty years ago)

No, I meant ...oh never mind.

Good old Delgados.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 8 April 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

seventeen years pass...

great record. 'everything goes...' and 'pull the wires...' are two of the best sings of all time. john peel selection of artists were always great.

― CerebralCaustic, Friday, 27 January 2023 16:32 (three years ago)

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