Some Friendly by The Charlatans
Some Friendly is the debut album by the British alternative rock band The Charlatans, released in 1990. Recorded at The Windings near Wrexham, Wales in 1990 the sessions proved somewhat fraught - the band fell out with the owners of the studio; "it was one of those studio bust-ups ... Rob and Martin were up to their old tricks, smashing stuff up and that" said singer Tim Burgess later. However lack of songs proved to be the major problem. Having been together for less than a year the band hadn't had the opportunity to stockpile songs and the album suffered as a result, featuring a few tracks that "had to go on there just to make up the numbers" (Burgess again). The band also felt that some songs (especially "White Shirt" and "Polar Bear") were overproduced, with the bass being lost in the mix and that the whole album sounded rather 'thin'. Both "The Only One I Know" and "Then" provided the Charlatans with hit singles however (peaking at #9 and #12 respectively in the British pop charts) and sales were good all over the world especially in the bands native UK where the album went straight in at #1 in the album charts.
