To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Charlatans’ third album, ‘Up To Our Hips’, Beggars Banquet are excited to release an expanded edition of the album. The 2CD / 2LP set features the original album in addition to 10 bonus tracks comprised of live session recordings, rare mixes and more, all curated by Tim Burgess. The special package has brand new reimagined artwork by Nik Void and the LP is pressed on Petrol Blue bio vinyl.
Released in 1994, ‘Up To Our Hips’ was a new direction for the band. It leaned slightly away from the lighter pop songs of their previous two albums and is darker, heavier and organ led. At the time, they were listening to a lot of Small Faces, Beatles, and Dylan and watching David Lynch films all while navigating internal band stress, and many of the lyrics on the album reflect the stress of the band at the time. The tracks that have been added to the release include two live tracks recorded for the Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley Show, plus B-sides, alternate mixes and more.
The Charlatans - easily recognized by their hallmark sound of driving Hammond organs, Northern UK soul and house-influenced rhythms, swaggering guitars and Tim Burgess’s sunny yet yearning vocals - are one of the most consistent British pop bands of the past three decades. The band have released an album every few years since 1989, each of which landed in the top half of the UK music charts, three of them hitting #1 and spawning 22 Top 40 singles. The band has overcome obstacles from nervous breakdowns to addiction to near bankruptcy to the heartbreaking deaths of two founding members, all the while adapting, transforming and producing new music in spite of it all.