ARTIST: Shack
TITLE: Time Machine
LABEL: Sour Mash
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 202kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 1h 08m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-10-01
RIP DATE: 2007-10-16
Track List
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1. I Know You Well 3:43
2. Comedy 5:27
3. Cup Of Tea 3:35
4. Al's Vacation 3:07
5. Pull Together 3:33
6. Meant To Be 5:38
7. Butterfly 4:49
8. Sgt Major 4:49
9. On The Terrace 3:50
10. Undecided 3:51
11. Cornish Town 3:59
12. Miles Apart 4:47
13. Streets Of Kenny 3:52
14. Shelley Brown 4:25
15. Neighbours 3:59
16. Holiday Abroad 2:14
17. Wanda 3:15
Release Notes:
Whenever Shack are mentioned in print, invariably itÆs not long before phrases
like æcriminally underratedÆ and ælost classicÆ raise their clichΘd heads.
Formed in 1988, the Liverpudlian four-piece have always been lavished with
critical praise in inverse proportion to their meagre record sales, but perhaps
the best way to summarise their career to date is ævery unluckyÆ.
After an unremarkable first album, songwriter Michael Head and his band knew
they had a potential hit on their hands with 1991Æs Waterpistol. Falling
somewhere between the classic Merseybeat of the Las and the fluid,
Byrds-influenced melodies of the Stone RosesÆ eponymous debut, it seemed
perfectly placed to catapult Shack to stardom. But a series of disastrous
events, including a studio fire that destroyed the master tapes, meant
Waterpistol did not see the light of day until 1995, by which time the music
scene had moved on. After a four-year split, 1999Æs HMS Fable emerged boasting a
host of Oasis-like big choruses, but they jumped on the Britpop bandwagon just
as it was grinding to a halt and the charts remained untroubled.
Unperturbed, Head and his sidekicks have continued to release great music ever
since. Time Machine is a fine retrospective of their significant talent,
featuring some of the best tracks from their four albums from Waterpistol
onwards as well as several rare and previously unreleased songs.
The highlights are many, but the delicious yearning harmonies of ôUndecidedö and
ôNeighboursö are probably the pick of ShackÆs earlier work, while their
evolution towards a more textured, orchestrated sound on 2003Æs HereÆs Tom With
The Weather is emphatically captured on the epic ôMeant To Beö, which employs
scintillating mariachi brass and strings sections that would not be out of place
on LoveÆs timeless masterpiece Forever Changes.
Although new tracks ôHoliday Abroadö and ôWandaö are rather disappointing, the
hitherto obscure ôAlÆs Vacationö stands out as one of their best compositions, a
quirkily tuneful little jaunt bringing to mind the lazy psychedelic folk of Pink
FloydÆs oft-overlooked post-Barrett, pre-Dark Side Of The Moon albums.
If you like Shack, you may already own much of whatÆs here and decide you donÆt
need this collection. But if youÆre an admirer of intelligent, imaginatively
arranged guitar pop thatÆs yet to discover their charms, then Time Machine is
quite simply an essential purchase.