Customer Reviews

Faded Seaside Glamour

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of those rare debuts that you'll probably remember for the rest of your life. I was absolutely shocked when I found out they were all male. But after watching a video of their's, it definitely fits.

Wanderlust (10) - The intro is a surprise, and then they hit you with those Cockteau Twin wails. Incredibly beautiful. Dreamy. Spacy. Angelic. Everything I ever wanted from music.

Nearer Than Heaven (10) - Can it get any better? Absolutely. My second favorite from the album. These harmonies send shivers. I'm now addicted. But wait, there's more...

Long Time Coming (10) - Favorite from the album, and maybe song of the year. Not only are they off to an amazing vocal start, you also begin to realize what great musicians they are. Man, I can't wait to see these guys live. You know what? This may be the best first-three-song combo on an album since The Joshua Tree. I am dead serious. Ok, 25% through the album, and so far, so perfect.

Bedroom Scene (8) - I first felt that this song started a stretch of several ho-hum songs. I underrated it. I really like it now. They continue to amaze.

No Ending (6) - Well, they lose me a little here. Not a bad song, but I see myself skipping this. Drop the lowest grade, class.

You Wear The Sun (7) - It has its moments...but...I call this the "slow" part of the album now... With a few more listens, I expect both this and "No Ending" to grow on me. This one is starting to.

Hey Girl (9) - This is the comeback song. This is so 60's to early 70's. It is so AM. I love it! I can't believe what memorable tunes these are. The perfect melodies.

Stay Where You Are (9) - The intro is a bit out of left field here. But it makes sense once it gets going. This is so soundtrack. What I mean is, this song would sound amazing in a movie. These guys are artists. I'm I gushing yet? Does it show? Wow.

There's Water Here (7) - The ballad. Pretty, but nothing much more than that.

Satellites Lost (9) - Beautiful. Sounds like a Stevie Nicks song. Easily one of the nicest on the album.

One Night Away (8) - Such a summer song! This is your typical great song if it were on a typical album. But this isn't that album.

On (8) - Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour? This is from the grandchild of that album. Very cool closer.

Well, in summary, this is probably the best album since Coldplay's Rush of Blood to the Head, and one of the best debuts ever.

Buy it unhesitatingly. Yo, that means not requiring a decision. Uh, I mean buy it now! Before they're all gone!

Long live Delays.

it's been a long time since i've randomly listened to the radio and just had my soul grabbed by a song. and it's been even longer since i've bought an album that has done the same. when i heard delays 'stay where you are' on 97x (www.woxy.com) a few months ago, i had to stop everything i was doing and just listen. the harmonies, the heavenly, jangly pop sound... it was awesome. and somehow i had this feeling that the rest of the album would be similar. from the first notes of the steel drums on 'wanderlust' to the ending harmonies of 'on,' the entire cd had me absolutely spell bound. it still does.

yes, as previous reviewers have noted, the first three tracks are strong. but i'd also include 'stay where you are' and 'on' in the strong tracks category. some tracks are more upbeat than others, but that's cool with me as the sound of the entire album is so consistently beautiful that i think it works whether happy or sad.

buy this album. it's beautiful. it resonates with every sad longing for a return to innocence, every desire to go somewhere more enticing and exotic than where you are right now. so cheesy, i know, but it's like a soundtrack for your soul.

The immediate thing I thought when I heard 'Faded Seaside Glamour', 4AD label, circa early 90's. Here's a band to namedrop, anyone remember Spirea X? Anyways enough of the nostalgia. Occasionally an old sound will resonate with a new audience, and The Delays seem to capture this. The CD falls in the hazy area between atmospheric dream-pop and Byrds-tinged Britpop...Cocteau Twins meets Suede, which in fact describes The Sundays, but in this case can also describe The Delays. Very similar in sound, ethereal, washes of echoing guitars, accompanied by high-pitched pixie-like vocals. The exquisitely high voice of Greg Gilbert (yes they are male) is the centrepiece of the album, straddling between Elizabeth Fraser and The Bangles-type melodies. Although not lost in this swirly haze are flashes of mid 90's Britpop swagger, upbeat and optimistic, I don't why but The Trash Can Sinatras suddenly came to mind. Upon conclusion the last third of the album switches into a more melancholic mood, drifting into Mazzy Star territory. 'Faded Seaside Glamour' might be the quick fix needed for a UK music scene that's eternally searching for something different, and worth a listen if you're searching for the same thing.

Faded Seaside Glamour is the perfect title for this debut from England's Delays. This Southampton quartet - brothers Greg (vocals/guitars) and Aaron Gilbert (keyboards), and brothers Colin (bass), and Rowley Fox (drums) - sound like the waning days of summer in a beachside community. Songs are dreamy, languorous, joyful and relaxed, born along by Greg Gilbert's mesmerizing falsetto. "Nearer Than Heaven" is an immaculate summer pop song - up there with the Beach Boys - and the rest are evocations of new love, fading love, love ending, and love beginning again. There are hints of the real world encroaching here, but, hey, it's summertime, and the living is easy.

i am so tempted to give this record 5 stars, but i'll have to settle with four (for now). when i first heard this album, it did not grab me at all. it just went over my head. i'm not sure why. the songs are great, the singer has a very very distinct and beautiful voice, and the instrumentation is lush and creative...maybe almost too creative for it's own good at times. there are pop hooks a'plenty on this album...but they are cleverly buried amongst the layers of chiming bells, haunting keyboards, and heavenly vocals. sometimes the production doesn't allow the sharp beauty of these elements to properly stand out at first; but i can guarentee with repeated exposure, you'll find yourself listening closer with each spin. "Hey Girl" is probably the standout single on here (due to it's masterful simplicity), but "You Wear The Sun" and "Bedroom Scene" are much more challenging songs and the better for it. the Delays are like the Byrds crossed with the Cocteau Twins. harmonies of heavenly angels and etheral rock that is really like none other. certainly worth investigation.

The Delays... yet another band with "the" in the title. That instantly put me off, but when I read a glowing review of one of their live shows on XFM, I decided to check them out. I was more than pleasantly surprised at what I found.

Now a few other reviewers have mentioned that the first 3 songs on the album kinda overshadow everything else. This is completely true. "Wanderlust", "Nearer than Heaven", and "Long Time Coming" are so good that they overpower nearly everything else, only "Hey Girl" (which is my 2nd fave track next to "Long Time Coming") stands a fighting chance against these songs. I don't think the rest of the songs are bad, in fact "Bedroom Scene" and "No Ending" have been growing on me, but you can't deny the power of the aforementioned mighty 4 tracks. "Long Time Coming" is one of the best songs I've heard in YEARS, the siren-like samples, the neverending vocal hooks, and the openly interperetable lyrics make this probably THE most amazing song you'll hear this year. And "Hey Girl" comes pretty close to acheiving the former's majesty, with endless vocal hooks and tons of jangle, The Byrds WISHED they had sounded this good =) I can't wait for these guys to come out with a 2nd album, if they can live up to their potential they can definitely make a truly classic album.

This album does not let up! Beautiful and transcending, personal and intimate. An impressive first album by the boys from Southampton. Delays remind me a lot of the Cocteau Twins, but thankfully they sing not in sounds but in English (still, the lyrics are at times inscrutable -- but, no matter). Buy this album!

Atmospheric, haunting, riveting....I received a promo copy of this CD, knowing nothing about the band (no cover art, no lyrics... nothing) and I started levitating right off the sofa as soon as I heard Greg Gilbert's vocals. Even though he has surely grown tired of the media endlessly comparing his vocals to Liz Fraser...he really DOES sound like her. Faded Seaside Glamour is amazing. It's one of those rare albums where you want to grab the artists and hug them and say "Thanks man, thanks for making music that speaks to my wounded little heart." Buy it, spin it, and sit back and listen as your friends stop, mid-conversation and say, who IS that???

Caught these guys in a televised concert last year, and was immediately hooked by their performance of 'Long Time Coming' and the falsetto of lead singer Greg Gilbert. I started searching for something on the band, and with the internet being what it is, found 'Faded Seaside Glory' at Amazon.

In addition to 'Long Time', I found the tracks 'Hey Girl' and 'Wanderlust' particularly well arranged and performed. There is actully not a weak cut on the album, and the videos on the second disc are just a bonus.

I suppose I would catagorize Delays as a fusion of pop, garage band, Beach Boys and Korgi's, with the ambience of a little seaside glory thrown in. They deserve a wider audience across the pond in the U.S. And, their follow-up release; 'You See Colours' proves it!

OK, yes, the first three songs are stunners -- big, lush, dense, elegeiac all at once. Gilbert's voice is a marvel of falsetto beauty. He, like Jeff Buckley, knows how to effortless integrate falsetto into the vocal line without making it sound like a strained "trick". Now, that said, don't discount the rest of the album as silly/shallow filler. "No ending" is one of the most quietly, achingly, beautiful songs I have heard in years -- the melody (ah, melody, where have you gone?)is sooo beautiful crafted, and when sung by Gilbert the whole thing just devestates. "Hey girl" is another blast of summery, Byrds influenced heat that leads us into the second, more disappointing half of the album. From track 8 - 12 the songs just seem to get stuck in a rut -- they are never less than beautifully executed, but when compared with the first half, well...So, 4 instead of 5 stars (Oh, SOOOO close to 5 stars.)

As for their influences, well, that is fairly obvious, and it is fun (and sometimes startling) to discover how much some of the songs are an artful and effortless pastiche of past rock greats.