Just because Ian Broudie spent the 1990s creating catchy, classic Brit-pop doesn't mean he was oblivious to the decade's advances in dance music. On his band's fifth album, Broudie dresses his sugary pop melodies and deceptively downbeat lyrics in the accoutrements of club culture. The Lightning Seeds haven't turned into The Chemical Brothers -- that said, the orchestrated leadoff track Life's Too Short whips itself into a retro-disco froth; the slow simmering Sweetest Soul Sensations samples Al Green to sensuous effect; while If Only and Crowdpleaser take their elastic grooves and Day-Glo arrangements from Happy Mondays and Primal Scream. Broudie goes too far with Happy Satellite and its melody-battering 4/4 thump, but he more than compensates with a batch of lovely, slow- and mid-tempoed numbers (I Wish I Was In Love, Get It Right, Cigarettes & Lies, Tales of the Riverbank, all richly layered synths and sparkling pianos) and a grand album closer, All The Things, that sounds like the best song Oasis never recorded.

Sunday, January 16, 2000

It's OK to tilt