Customer Reviews

Chrome

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chrome is a masterpiece of the electric guitar. It is albums like this that make you truly appreciate just how incredible the instrument really is. And what's more amazing, Catherine Wheel never falls into the trap of the arty "progressives" - there are no masturbatory solos here; in fact, singer and guitarist work very well together, and neither spends any time being pretentious and showing off.

It takes a couple of listens to appreciate all the songs, but some will stand out during the first listen - "Crank," "The Nude," "Ursa Major," all amazingly multi-layered, very fluid and with great hooks. The lyrics seem fairly simple, but they are delivered so well that they do indeed have a deep emotional impact, especially when accompanied by the charges and crashes of the guitars. "Pain" is an amazing musical suite ("I miss my best friend," mourns Dickinson, and the listener wants to mourn with him), but "Fripp" is even more so - the intro sounds straight out of some symphony (and indeed the album is a fine guitar symphony). The Nude is an unforgettable song about a painting ("far...deep...phantom seeking, I could see...."), the hook in "Ursa Major" is nothing short of spectacular, and "Chrome" and "Kill Rhythm" pulse with Dickinson's passion.

Speaking of passion - the album is aggressive, but not violent or crude; the mood is a wonderful combination of wistful sadness ("Fripp") and elation (yeah, try and tell me you didn't sing along to "Show Me Mary" - try all you want). It's an album to listen to when you're lonely and when you're happy, when you're in tears and when you're prancing about like a loon, and it creates a beautiful sonic landscape of its own that must look something like the lovely watery world on the sleeve ("I could live with you there," sings Dickinson on "Fripp").

After just two listens, I with great pleasure concluded that there's not a single weak track on here. Chrome is one of the best guitar albums of all time, one of the best rock albums of the nineties, and miles above anything in "the shoegazing scene," including My Bloody Valentine (whom they're often compared to). This is Catherine Wheel's finest hour, and they deserve to go down in the annals of rock greats for it.

Chrome is the follow-up to Catherine Wheel's excellent debut Ferment. It still has the loud, stuffy sound of Ferment but is not quite as raw and is more varied musically. It begins with the explosive "Kill Rhythm" which is very powerful yet catchy and sports some nice duel vocals in places. "I Confess" is very nice with a killer guitar riff in the middle. Some of the tracks are a little more accessible than the music on Ferment. "Strange Fruit" has addictive guitar and pounding drums and nice duel vocals. "The Nude" is also very accessible, as beautiful and artistic as the title suggests. Other favorites of mine are the surreal "Broken Head" with the sing-along-to chorus, and the even more surreal "URSA Major Space Station" (the drums here are amazing). Then there is the quiet 7:34 "Fripp" (Catherine Wheel usually has at least one long track per album). The singles off this album are not as good as those off of Ferment. The best part of "Crank" is the opening riff and "Show Me Mary" is a little too pop. Still, Catherine Wheel's sophomore release is right up there with the brilliant Ferment. If you are new to Catherine Wheel, listen to the music clips Amazon offers and, if you like what you hear, get their first three CDs: Ferment, Chrome, and Happy Days. They are all solid with superb alternative rock material.

I was a music director at a college radio station when this came out, and along with a ton of other albums this one commanded my attention.
Shoegazers??? I am sure all the label slinging yahoos are still wiping the egg off their faces. Its as if the band heard they were pigeonholed and gave them all the big finger.
Just buy it...and all the rest.

"Chrome" was voted by at least one big name British rag as among the best guitar albums of all time. They've got it right. With a sound that's equal parts bombast and aggression, British and nationless, and heavy by virtue of just how soaked with effects the guitars are, Catherine Wheel blossoms out of speakers.

The sonics aren't too different from "Ferment," the band's first album, but the production is stronger, louder, and better mixed, giving even more room for Futter's lead guitar storm to rain down. Dickinson's voice is one of the most distinctive ever in rock music and perfectly suited to the kind of music this band created: spacey and bordering on angelic, but with an edge.

Sudden musical shifts from meandering melodic to flat-out rocking ("I Confess"), vivid synesthetic properties ("Broken Head"'s soaring chorus honestly creates a visual of some kind of life essence escaping from someone's skull), and an overall love for crafting multi-layered guitar music are put on display here.

Few bands can write something as convincingly vintage and poppy as "Show Me Mary" (with very modern effects and production) and put it on the same album with epic guitar feasts like "Pain" and "Ursa Major Space Station."

As far as androgynously poppy fuzzpop albums to come out in the early '90s go, "Chrome" is the best, topping "Loveless" by virtue of its lack of cheesy drum machine dance rhythms and inclusion of blues-inspired guitar noise.

This was the first Catherine Wheel album I purchased. I now own all of them. I wish I could have back the 3 years they were recording before I was aware of them. This is still their finest album in my opinion. There is not a poor song on this CD. The mellow, dreamy tracks Fripp, The Nude, Ursa Major Space Station, are remeniscent of their fabulous Ferment CD. There are plenty of songs with a hard edge to them however: Broken Head, I Confess, Kill Rhythm. Strange Fruit & Show Me Mary are somewhere in between but are amazing still. Sit back, listen & experience this album & you might feel emotions you didn't even know you had. I would recommend it to anyone who loves music & craves something a little more complex & developed than the usual top 40 american slop.

Perhaps AMAZON will link Coldplay, Blur, and Oasis search hits with this record and inspire a new generation to discover the source that those bands ripped off and do a poor imitation of. Buy this album and get the real thing, for this is a Catherine Wheel masterpiece.

The standout songs here are "Crank" and "The Nude," while "Ursa Major Space Station" also has its hypnothrob charm. This is a fantastic wall of fuzz guitar, and is the most innovative use of the fuzz box since Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps." But the whole album is truly the first, best, and original of the shoe gazer genre, and owning it and "Ferment" marks you as "us" versus "them" in the hierarchy of music aficionados.

I've purchased this album three times, lost it three times, and am about to purchase it again. It's that good. I've got 40 GB of music on my ipod and there's a gaping hole without Broken Head, The Nude, etc. Incredible. If you've come this far to read a review, you owe it to yourself and friends to pick this up.

Every song on this album is amazing. If you're going to buy only one Catherine Wheel album this should be the one. This actually was the first album of theirs that I bought and now I have all of their cds, including many singles which have unreleased tracks on them. I would describe the albums sound as hard, rythmatic, and somewhat pop. The lyrics as powerful blues. This mix is very unique and they are unmistakable if you were to have heard them before. I suggest that everyone should buy this album you wont regret it. Most likely it wont be the last album you buy of theirs.

The term "shoegazer" (which isn't my favorite musical term, but anyway . . .) supposedly came from My Bloody Valentine's habit of staring at the floor when they played (even though The Cure and many others used to perform like this). I can't personally attest to that legend but I love MBV and the atmospheric genre they spawned which is marked by thick, otherworldly guitar textures. CW are more rock-oriented and less experimental than MBV and that might lead some to put them in a different catagory. However you define them, Catherine Wheel have made some of the lushest, most heavenly guitar textures around. IMHO, this album represents the band's pennacle (thus far) especially in terms of achieving their atmospheric sound as well as writing some of their best songs along with "Black Metallic" from their previous debut album FERMENT. Though a few songs fall short of the mind-warping punch found on most of CHROME, the very best ones - "Kill Rhythm," "Broken Head," "Pain," and "Fripp" - are totally killer and easily elevate my rating to 5 stars. In fact, it's one of my favorite albums.

"Kill Rhythm" - An ominous guitar line ignites the engine before the whole band launches into orbit. This one's dark and very heavy. *****

"I Confess" - deliciously compliments Rob Dickinson's self-indulgent persona ("Popped so many pills," etc. . . . does he sing "One more paramour" or "paranoid?"). This one is lush and oh so tasty. *****

"Crank" - is a cool rocker, geared more towards something radio could handle (despite some of the song's darker implications). ****1/4

"Broken Head" - Probably the album's best track, just hearing it is like getting high. It's really like stepping into another world. *****

"Pain" - another one of their best and a crushing masterpiece. *****

"Strange Fruit" - This one stresses rock over atmosphere yet still takes the listener to a dreamy place. ****1/2

Side 2

"Chrome" - A heavy, repetitive riff drives this head-churner until Rob soothes with his lush, steamy voice in the chorus. ****1/2

"The Nude" - A slower song but played with plenty of muscle. There are some dreamy guitars and much else to love, but it's not my favorite song. It's good though. ***3/4

"URSA Major Space Station" - Some heavy, angular riffs drive this swirling rocker. Not sure what it's about, but it's definitely intense. *****

"Fripp" - This one takes me to a sweet, sweet place when I let it. It's like the placid state of limbo you feel before drifting off to sleep. "Too much is not enough . . . " *****

"Half Life" - starts off mining some rather run-of-the-mill alt-rock territory (but it's Catherine Wheel so it sounds good) before it comes crashing down with heavy drums and slashing guitar chords. It's a schitzophrenic tune - pretty trippy. ****1/2

"Show Me Mary" - This last cut fully digresses into peppy, fun alt-rock land. It sounds tailor-made to be a pop single, but it doesn't really fit it with the rest of the album. I don't usually listen to it even though it's actually a good song. ***1/2

The fact that this album, and many others by Catherine Wheel, was overlooked by radio and music magazines -- what can I say? It's a crime. There are so many people that I meet who are closet Catherine Wheel fans. ("You like them? You've HEARD of them? I had no idea!") Among those people, this album seems to be a consistent favorite. I remember when this album came out, and I was working at a indie record store, a British music zine rated *Chrome* the "second-best British album ever." Buy this album. You won't regret it.