Best Catherine Wheel album poll

voted within 12 seconds of poll creation

i included the compilation Like Cats and Dogs because it is just as good as any album they released.

such a great, great band. looking forward to what ILM thinks is their very best.

I clearly need to give LCAD a good listen, then!

I've banged on about my favourite and how it represents the biggest improvement over a previous album I've ever heard, but I was probably harsh on Happy Days - yeah the first half is DIRE, but the second half, from Eat My Dust onward, is really pretty enjoyable. It's one of the most backloaded records I've ever heard!

chrome more like chrowns

Anyway, I might as well say it. Adam & Eve is one of my top 10 90's records. I think it's the best straight-up rock album of the decade, and for me, EVERY track is an anthem (intro/outro aside).

Oh, and "For Dreaming" is probably in my top 10 songs *ever* by *anyone*.

That said I haven't really given Chrome or LCAD good listens. What I've heard of the former is pretty good although not quite up with their alt-rock makeover.

It's weird, because I'm such a big fan of the first four, but have never even listened to the last two. Ferment probably contains the highest concentration of my favorite songs, but Chrome really works better as an album (and it's more powerful w/o being "grungy," something that wasn't easy to do in 1993).

Chrome it is then.

ferment! chrome was pretty ok, the rest were terrible. i miss the days when you couldn't escape from 'black metallic' on alternateen radio.

Adam & Eve

xp: I stopped listening to my local altrock station right around the time they stopped playing Black Metallic.

I've never heard any of their albums though, so will not vote.

btw Wishville isn't actually as *dreadful* as everyone says. would possibly rank it above Happy Days. actually wait no I wouldn't

Not sure I agree - "Happy Days" is the one that's not as dreadful as it's reputation, whereas "Wishville" is, and isn't thought of even worse simply because most fans jumped ship by then. Rob's solo album, despite a couple of awkward lyrics, is actually quite good.

"Ferment" and "Chrome" feel like two sides of a magnificent coin, with their driving, gauzey full-on vibe, but it's "Adam & Eve" that brings the full strength of Rob's songwriting to bear coupled with Tim Friese-Green's quiet touches and big spaces that makes everything shine even brighter than the first two albums. That's my pick.

"Happy Days" has 6* songs that *rinse* everything on Wishville, so it wins. But Wishville doesn't have any songs that quite match Happy Days' depths.

*Heal, Eat My Dust, Shocking, Love Tips Up, Fizzy Love, Eat My Soul = killer. HD should have been half as long and twice as good.

(I will admit that because of those six songs alone and maybe Judy Staring At The Sun if I'm feeling charitable Happy Days is a lot better than the absolute evisceration I gave it on ILX way back...on the Adam & Eve thread, I think)

Is it true the singer is Bruce Dickinson's cousin?

yes!

oh man, I have not given Catherine Wheel the attention they deserve given how much I absolutely adore "Black Metallic" (one of my top 100 songs of all time)

more discussion of great, sometimes terrible band plz

Pretty damn strong b-sides and non-lp material. "30th Century Man" EP is a great set of covers and reflects their influences.

I always mix up Heal and Heal 2, can never remember which one is the longer version (and still can't).

Heal is longer. Christ, Happy Days is a schizophrenic album.

chrome imo.

just counted and i have the first 13 CD singles or to the first Adam and Eve double single. that is why i'm pretty sure i'm going to vote for Like Cats and Dogs but man they could have easily done a double B-sides album.

Has to be Chrome. for years I preferred Ferment, but then picked up Chrome again and realized the songs had held up so much better. Such a classic--less gimmicky than Ferment as well (less gratuitous soft/loud soft/loud).

def Chrome, tho if a vote for Ferment included the rest of the singles & b-sides from that era, it would certainly be a harder choice. These guys could be pretty great on record, but they were goddam tremendous live.

I saw them on the Fontana tour. They outclassed ocean colour scene back when they were still semi-shoegazey, some accomplishment, but Guy Chadwick had their number.

Toss-up between Ferment, Chrome, Adam and Eve. Voted for the latter because it's likely gonna need some love, compared to those first two.

For some reason Catherine Wheel is a huge whole in my shoegazer listning, I've never listened to them. Maybe I should rectify this.

yeah can everyone please at least give 'adam and eve' a listen before voting 'chrome' kthx

It's weird, because I'm such a big fan of the first four, but have never even listened to the last two

like come on man, this is akin to being a fan of talk talk up to colour of spring and leaving it there

(well that's wrong, because wishville != laughing stock in quite a big way, but you catch my drift)

i dunno, the last few just sound like trad indie rock to me. are you jack rabid?

yes i am. also if all trad indie rock is that boldly-realised, that unrepentantly widescreen, then give me more trad indie-rock

happy days is not nearly as bad as its reputation. the cheezy rockers are kinda fun driving music. otoh, black metallic is pretty much tops. chrome as a whole, not so much.

my wife is a big fan, and Chrome is her fave, so this vote is for you, sweetie!

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Just listened to "Ferment" again and it's clearly their third best album because 1) it's basically variations on a theme albeit a good theme and 2) it's overly long by at least a couple of tracks - get rid of "Tumbledown" and "Bill And Ben" and it's a much stronger album.

No way, Tumbledown is one of the best!

Starting to grow terrified that I might enjoy Happy Days *significantly* more than I used to :-/

oh, ha here i was thinking 'geez the only other person i've ever seen proclaim their endless love for latter day catherine wheel is jack rabid'.

even though i have been out drinking and bowling tonight in Los Angeles. i wanted to try and give my two cents since this poll will end tomorrow.

what soured me on Adam and Eve was the show i saw while living in San Francisco. i saw them around four times before this show but that time around i was more interested in their side show. which was the cover for this album come alive with two performers moving around in boxes.

i love Happy Days! i liked getting angry with that album but understand not everyone even liking it, especially old fans.

i had a chance to listen to Chrome and really liked the second half. also heard Like Cats and Dogs, though it doesn't really flow well as an album the collection of songs are top notch. i thought it was going to be a quick listen, as it only lists 12 songs. this album has those bonus songs, so song 13 is actually an additional three songs. the whole thing ends with a cover song and while listening to it, i couldn't figure out who it was. turns out they close out the album with Rush's "Spirit of Radio."

I voted Adam and Eve on the basis of "Delicious" even though some of the later songs on the album annoy me, e.g. "Phantom of the American Mother", which plods instead of stomps. But "Delicious" struts, in addition to having a crushing chorus. Did they ever do a live version of this song where they stretched out? Because the transition from chorus back to verse works well for keeping the song concise, but you could make that transition less abrupt...could make the song sexier too since I hear that transition as a kinda "straightening the collar" moment, after the climax of the chorus.

btw this is a pretty great video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PmB3qs6lC0

yes!!

excellent video with a great narrative. the song itself is -awesome- but the best things about it are the sustained chord into the middle-eight, and most of all the keyboard/processed guitar counter-melody in the chorus. don't know how they thought of it but it's inspired beyond belief.

yeah, and I don't want to get TMI but that song, esp. the part you're describing, does a great job imo in expressing something...delicious

absolutely - it conveys the mad rush of diving headlong into the carnal realm. but in truth the song (and video) is really quite a sensitive, subtle and joyous representation of desire/temptation, as they come! especially in the rock discourse. a song about desire written by someone who's heard and understood talk talk's take on the subject first

ah, now you're talking about one of my favorite topics in pop music!

The video is pretty subtle: he ignores her in order to get the forbidden fruit, and she wants him enough so that she begins to jump for the fruit too. I don't know whether they're commenting on this or not, but it seems to me that it's depicting a problematic view of desire: he doesn't want her, he wants the fruit, and then they "jump" together toward a common aim, instead of each other.

whatever '90's hot' is, she is it, btw, and how

i think you've captured the video's sense quite well, although there's the sense they will see each other properly once they reach the fruit, which they won't...hence it's about the raw, thrilling blindness of youth, and i think it's fully sympathetic to it. especially with uncle rob actually possessing aforesaid fruit in a box. there there, kid.

and the song's lyrics, while sensual and carnal, are also quite cerebral about it. it's a celebration of the rush, as well as the rush itself.

btw i didn't like phantom of the american mother at all for ages but its langurous pace and organ-driven grandeur grew on me. it's still probably the weakest track proper. on an album of wall-to-wall brilliance.

nicely put (re. "Delicious")! I confess I like the video edit, w/o the chit-chat afterward.

I should explore the rest of the group's discography again; it's been years...

Am becoming rapidly disturbed by how much I like 'Waydown' in retrospect. It's a pretty massive pop single. And the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e3HVzVmGa8

Ferment for me. Has anyone pointed out that the lead singer is the cousin of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wha?

yanks amirite

ok what the fuck

i may have been listening to (certain tracks from) happy days recently and liking them, but there's absolutely no excuse for what 10 of you have done

i would have voted for chrome. didn't see the poll. best thing they ever did.

yanks amirite - I'm 'merican & cannot explain this. Most ppl I've met who like CW rep for the first two & occasionally someone will rep for their later stuff & very seldomly someone will go on about how HD is misunderstood & all. Maybe critical reevaluation has changed the narrative? At the time of its release, HD was a total dud. It was a calculated bid for MTV/FM airplay, but not only did it fail to do more than scratch the surface of the grunge trend, it mostly alienated its (not inconsiderable) US fanbase. Maybe I need to listen to it again?

i'd recommend listening to it again but not minding that more than half the songs are crap - there's a super little 7-track album in there

i am also 'merican -- i remember hearing black metallic/i want to touch you on college radio and seeing the waydown video on mtv, but never really anything about chrome (which i voted for)