‘Glo’ by Delirious?

When Delirious? released Glo, I had high hopes. It was touted at the time as some sort of ‘Cutting Edge 5’, a return to the band’s routes after the moderate mainstream success of ‘King of Fools’ and ‘Mezzamorphis’. Ultimately, I remember finding the album something of a disappointment, and it’s not an album I’ve listened to much in the meantime.

I should be clear though – this is not a bad album. There are a number of very good songs on it, and nothing that’s worse than average. I think the album suffered, and still suffers, from high expectations, and a slight lack of direction. The idea of making an album more grounded in worship is hard to fault, but the albums preceding this one weren’t especially ambiguous, and the problem with ‘Glo’ is that it still isn’t written for a congregation. You couldn’t use these songs in a church, so all you really get is a slightly simpler version of what’s gone before. There’s no ‘Thank You For Saving Me’ on this record, no ‘Shout To The North’, not even a ‘Did You Feel The Mountains?’

‘God You Are My God’ is a case in point for the strengths and weaknesses of the album. It’s a confident performance with a solid production, and it has some lovely touches – the choir, and the chanting monks are both evidence of the band’s ambition, but there’s no real depth to the song, and it launches immediately into an improvised instrumental section that, for all its heart, doesn’t convey much of anything. ‘God’s Romance’ has more drive, and ‘Investigate’ more depth, though again, the extended musical outro is unnecessary. The middle of the album has some strong points. ‘My Glorious’ is the heart of the album, and a highlight track, but still a song that would sit awkwardly on the radio or in a church – the worst of both worlds, if you will. ‘Everything’ is a real standout, largely because it doesn’t try to straddle this line – it’s a song of worship, clearly, but it sounds like a mainstream hit until the end when the choir kicks in, but holding this trick back for the closing moments makes it work. ‘Hang On To You’ is a good listen, though it sounds like a closing track with six songs still to go. ‘Intimate Stranger’, in all honesty, is seven and a half minutes of tedium. ‘Awaken The Dawn’, on the other hand, is great – a classic Delirious anthem, and the only track from the album you could genuinely use in church. It would be a triumph, if not for the fact that it had been written several years before the rest of the album, and had already been released and made successful by Noel Richards. ‘Years Go By’ is Delirious by numbers, fine but unremarkable. ‘Jesus’ Blood’ is a brooding finisher, a kind of sequel to ‘Obsession’ from Cutting Edge 4.

So it really isn’t bad, but it was the first Delirious album not to represent a significant step forward, choosing instead to lurch sideways. Worse, the knock-on effect, in my opinion, had an impact on their next album, another attempt to break the mainstream market which was somewhat derailed by this. But out of context, and judged on its own merit, this was a decent listen.

‘d:tour 1997 live’ by Delirious?

By a quirk of alphabetical organisation, we come to this immediately after the four Cutting Edge albums, but miss out ‘King of Fools’, the anchoring album that ties this record to them. Ah well.

Once the Cutting Edge band had changed their name to Delirious and decided to go full time, lots of things happened. All of a sudden, there was a full album, singles, a tour of proper venues, even TV appearances. The first phase of their new lives was concluded with this, a recording from a date on the tour, released, if memory serves, through mail order? I may be making that up.

As it stands, it’s certainly a good document of how things were at the time. Most of ‘King of Fools’ is represented here, as well as a handful of later Cutting Edge tracks. At the time, the tracklisting was a mild disappointment –the ‘King of Fools’ tracks were pretty much as recorded, and the rest had been recently released on the ‘Live and in the Can’ collection, but separated from this context, everything sounds pretty good. The between-song banter from Martin Smith is mildly awkward at points, but full of optimism for the future which proved to be fairly well founded – Delirious would certainly go from strength to strength over the years, though not always in the way they had planned or expected.

Thirteen years later, it’s hard to regard this album as essential. It isn’t – but it does remain a decent listen, and it retains a nostalgic glow for anyone caught up in their trajectory at the time.

‘Cutting Edge 4’ by The Cutting Edge Band (Delirious?)

And so, with volume 4, the Cutting Edge era came to a close. It seems bizarre, listening back to this, that the band were still churning out releases without a proper name at this stage. However, with Jon Thatcher added to the line-up as bassist, this album can stake a claim to being the first proper Delirious? album.

More similar to volume 3 than volume 3 had been to volumes 1 and 2, ‘Cutting Edge 4’ offers a collection of songs largely tailored to performance. There’s no mistaking their Christian message, but the majority of these songs wouldn’t have worked as worship songs even at the Soul Survivors of the world. Some are too too personal, written to closely to the experiences of an individual. Others are just a little too polished. ‘Louder Than The Radio’ and ‘You Split The Earth’ are too polished – carefully arranged and produced, dependant too heavily on Stuart Garrard’s guitar parts and backing vocals to be copied elsewhere. His guitar in particular has taken a leading role in the band’s sound by now. That said, ‘When All Around Has Fallen’ is all bass and piano. And beauty, especially in retrospect. A song that sounded a touch dirge-like a decade and a half ago now sounds very moving (perhaps that’s just me). It would set a template for future songs like ‘Hands of Kindness’ and ‘Summer of Love’, but it also stands apart on it’s own. ‘I’ve Searched For Gold’ is the traditional ‘Martin Smith on his own’ song in the middle. It’s perfectly adequate, but slightly unnecessary – a throwback to a simpler time.

‘Shout To The North’ opens the second half, and is a curious beast. In many ways, it stands at odds with the rest of the album as the only song which would work in a church context (we used to do it all the time). It’s simple enough, catchy enough, and very easy to sing, but it doesn’t really fit, and the presence of the children’s choir doesn’t help much. In retrospect, it may have been better left until ‘Glo’, but I guess that would have required an unprecedented level of foresight. ‘All I Want Is You’ is this albums ‘I’m Not Ashamed’, a straightforward rock track with a personal lyric of commitment. I remember the line ‘can I be free from the chains of my religion’ sounded quite daring at the time, but I guess that’s what you get for being fifteen years old. ‘Obsession’ is the epic finale to the album (and a staple of the live set for a years afterwards), built round a ponderous bassline, and decorated with many lashings of e-bow.

I remember buying this on cassette at Spring Harvest soon after its release and being slightly unsure of it. It sounded good – and it still does, truth be told – but something about it just didn’t quite work. In retrospect, I think this was a sign that the band were outgrowing their context. A short album each year of half a dozen tracks just wasn’t enough any more for them to express what they were aiming for. There was no real indication at the time of the direction they were about to hurtle off into, but all the signs are there.

‘Cutting Edge 3’ by The Cutting Edge Band (Delirious?)

If ‘Cutting Edge 2’ represented a shift in emphasis for the Cutting Edge band, the follow-up was a fundamental shift which altered the course of the band from there on in. From the opening of ‘Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble’, it is apparent that the band have left behind the approach of going into the studio and recording straightforward versions of songs that could be sung in churches. The opening track is lengthy, carefully arranged, and only of use for singing with big crowds. None-the-less, it sounds fantastic, even now. ‘I’ve Found Jesus’ is more straightforward, but similarly un-congregational. ‘Oh Lead Me’ is far simpler, and achievable on a small scale.

The second half (or ‘side’ for those who remember the cassette versions) is structured in much the same way. ‘Shaken Up’ and ‘I’m Not Ashamed’ are great songs written for performance, and ‘Find Me In The River’ is a quieter, gentler end.

The album as a whole is much more ambitious than its predecessors, and in a sense, it sets a template for everything that came afterwards. According to the history of Delirious?, the band made no decision to go full time until after the release of ‘Cutting Edge 4’, but it’s hard to believe the thought hadn’t crossed their mind by this stage.

‘Cutting Edge 2’ by The Cutting Edge Band (Delirious?)

Released one year later than it’s predecessor, Cutting Edge 2 has some major stylistic differences. Though it remains, largely, a very accessible worship album, there’s more variety within these six tracks, and the beginning of a shift towards arrangement and performance being more developed. ‘The Prophet Song’ and ‘Lead Me’ are unmistakeably worship songs, but would be difficult to sing in a church. ‘The Happy Song’ would work in certain contexts (it did the rounds at Soul Survivor for a few years), but it would be a brave worship leader who attempted it at home (I think I did, once or twice, but I was learning…) Even ‘King Of Love’, in all its simplicity, would be a little to personal to sing in a group. ‘I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever’ is the only track from CE2 to make any kind of a ‘Thank You For Saving Me’ type impact, and it can still be heard in churches today from time to time. ‘Coming Back’, by contrast, was their most mainstream-aimed song yet. I don’t think the band had any secular ambitions at this point (the band still weren’t even a fully formed unit), but this was definitely pointing the way.

Instrumentally, the album followed the template set by the first. It’s largely a mix of acoustic guitar and piano. The addition of Stuart Garrard to the line-up means the electric guitar plays a more prominent role throughout the collection, but only in a supporting role. By Cutting Edge 3, there would a fundamental shift of balance in this direction…

‘Cutting Edge’ by The Cutting Edge Band (Delirious?)

There are lots of albums that I’ve enjoyed over the years, and a good number that I’ve really loved. Few of them, however, had played a more important role than the Cutting Edge albums. Though it was released in 1993, I heard it for the first time a year or so later, just as I was starting to lead worship at my home church, and just as I was starting to get to grips with the guitar. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Cutting Edge band, and later Delirious (as they were to become) wrote some of the most influential Christian songs of the decade, but they also had a style and sound that I found hugely appealing.

Listening back to the first album (I say album, at six tracks long, it’s only really an EP), it’s remarkable how conventional it sounds. Three of the tracks (‘Lord You Have My Heart’, ‘Thank You For Saving Me’ and to a lesser extent, ‘The Crucible For Silver’ went on the be sung in churches across the land, and the first two of those tracks would fit comfortably into all but the most traditional of them. The arrangements to all the songs on the album are very straightforward – at this stage, there wasn’t much of a band really. Front-man and writer Martin Smith, drummer Stewart Smith, and keyboard player Tim Jupp were in place, but the band wouldn’t finally adopt it’s permanent line-up until Cutting Edge 4. As a result, there’s no heavily determined band sound, which is perhaps why the songs spread so far. ‘The Message of the Cross’ and ‘The Singer’s Song’ are less congregationally suitable, but are still very explicitly worship songs. Only ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’ is a sign of how things would develop – less obvious, more performance oriented, and more rock-styled.

'Audio Lessonover' by Delirious?

This is a tricky one. From 'Cutting Edge' onwards, I was a big Delirious fan, but this was the last album of theirs I ever bought. Not a good sign. Actually, it was very interesting listening back to this - it's not as bad as I remembered it being, but it has some pretty major flaws.

Up until this album, Delirious had been on an interesting journey. Every album had seen them edge slightly closer to the mainstream until their album 'Glo', the one before this, which was a firm step back towards their worship roots. It's almost as though they thought they needed to balance this out, as 'Audio Lessonover' is as mainstream friendly as they ever went.

For the first time, the album contained songs that were not explicitly Christian in their outlook. Some people found this difficult to take, though I don't think it bothered me at the time. I've never quite understood the view that Christians should only write 'Christian music'. Having said that, it does give the album a slightly muddled outlook, especially because a lot of the songs use language that sounds quasi-worshippy - lots of references to 'all you need is love', and 'your love' and 'angels' - it's as though they didn't quite have the courage of their convictions. It's therefore hard to see who they're trying to appeal to, and how. Even the album title is confused - much was made of it being an ironic anagram of 'Radio One Love Us', but even if that's true, it doesn't mean a lot.

The main problem with this album, however, is musical. In fairness, this is quite a brave album - there are lots of musical ideas and production tricks that the band hadn't tried before. Some of them work, lots of them come close to working, and some of them just don't. 'Waiting For The Summer' and 'Take Me Away' are both decent enough slabs of pop, then 'Love Is The Compass' comes really close to being the best yet before its clunker of a middle eight lets it down. 'Angel In Disguise' is good, but 'Rollercoaster' doesn't really work, despite its modular approach to construction - the bits just don't really fit together. 'Bicycle Gasoline' has a nice tune, but it doesn't seem to mean anything, 'A Little Love' and 'Heaven' are fine, but nothing that hasn't been done before, and better. 'Angel' is a mawkish mess of nothingness. 'Stealing Time' is good - the best example of finishing with a big brooding track since 'Obsession'. But it doesn't add up to enough good bits.

The band, I believer, returned to form after this, though I didn't follow them particularly. The trouble is, they went back to being a successful worship band, and it seemed to regressive to me, however well it was done. It's a shame the world didn't give them a bit more of a chance to work these ideas through - maybe a real follow up to 'Audio Lessonover' would have been great? Sadly, the album just sticks out as a missed opportunity.