Review by: Dan Baker
early last year i went to one of the NME brat shows to see mogwai. me and my friends had never heard of the other bands and presumed they would be lame ‘indie’ bands (NME definition of indie – band signed to a major label who sound like oasis). after asking around my friend tim said he had heard all the bands and said they were terrible britpop crap. we took his advice and turned up just in time to see mogwai.
a while later i was on the southern page looking up bands and i came across a description of a band that sounded familiar. i bought a record of theirs. it was incredible. it was by the opening band at the NME show i went to that were ‘terrible’. it was by Bob tilton. Now they have split up i will never forgive my friend.
this record is great. jangly guitars, sometimes soft and pretty, sometimes loud and discordant, jazzy drums deftly changing time, and the most versatile voice i think i have ever heard; sometimes van pelt style poetic ramblings of equally poetic lyrics, other times the best whining this side of mineral, and then shouting it’s way through an impressive amount of words.
though i love this record it does feel incomplete. some of the songs don’t seem to fit together, and the record ends in the middle of nowhere, sort of abruptly. this sense i’m getting is probably because the band split up before completion. but this is still very good, i’d buy it just for the title track; i can still hear that trumpet. Bob Tilton are one of the best english emo bands but suffered one problem, being way too ahead of their time and finishing before their peak.