Cast - All Change / Mother nature Calls / Magic Hour / Beetroot

****

Still casting their presence!!!!

Where to start on a band that set the scene and mood of a decade in a certain way, with their great Merseyside sound. I think the re-issue of these four great albums is a great start the definitive debut 'All Change', the brilliant and slightly different follow-up 'Mother nature Calls' the back to basics 'Magic Hour' and the over looked 'Beetroot' which all set a good picture of what the band is all about.

Cast formed in 1992 from a mix of the ‘There she Goes’ fame laden The La’s and Shack, hailing from Liverpool they arrived headlong at a time that British music was dominating the charts. Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Elastica and Sleeper you could not turn on a radio without hearing English bands blasting their guitar laded sound to the rest of the rest of the world. Recently a number of these acts have capitalised on the resurgence of guitar music and reformed and reissued with varying degrees of success. Cast reformed back in 2010 and are now re-releasing their original four albums in deluxe editions for original fans and new ones alike to reminisce or find them for the first time. We have looked back at the four albums to see what made them unique in their own time.

'All Change' ***** The first album they released was ‘All Change’ in 1995 the title a possible reference to show that were no longer The La’s but a new entity. This is an album I recall having in my own collection being a big fan of the genre and the whole culture defining ethos that went with it. Being only fifteen at the time my involvement was very much at home rather than gigs, for a year or so anyway, though I did see the band a number of times including a memorable occasion at Battersea Power Station in December 1997. ‘All Change’ had four successful singles which due to their familiarity even listening back now make them hard not to dominate the album.

‘Fine Time’ was very much a Brit-Pop anthem powerful guitars all kicking along with strong vocals over the top, I am amazed how good this album and particular this songs sounds after all this time, the sign of a good collection. Despite having the hallmarks of its era it does not sound dated at all. ‘Alright’, the opening track was another one that could possibly be put into the anthem drawer bouncy and just makes you want to bounce around the room to. ‘Walkaway’ a more sedate and down beat song, was possibly the most heard in the wider populace as I recall it became the soundtrack to sporting losses when they like to play an emotive song, usually when a Brit lost a match at Wimbledon. While fitting in the genre this album showed Cast’s unique style, while a number of bands of the era sounded similar, you always knew it was a Cast song playing

Check Out! a Video of Cast performing 'Alright / Sandstorm' on the White Room in 1996 Below...

'Mother nature Calls' ****1/2 Now Cast had established their place in the public psyche with the debut album having sold over a million copies, in the days when you actually had to go to a shop to buy it not just click. In 1997 it was release of seemingly toilet related name ‘Mother nature Calls’ that returned them to the limelight, from a personal perspective at the time I recall this was the last of their albums I purchased and had a lot to live up to. It never did quite match the feats of the initial record in sales or in the overall body of work, typical second album syndrome. When you are there is no internal benchmark to be set against. Opening track and the most successful in the singles chart from this album was ‘Free Me’ which to be honest did kick on where they had left off and could have almost been from the previous album, albeit with a slightly more structured sound.

‘Live The Dream’ was the lighters in the air slower single more and hints at the more 70’s inspired sound this album takes along with ‘She sun Shines’ an unreleased album track. The stand out track for me was another single, but that is coincidental rather than the reason, ‘Guiding Star’ it just brings back personal memories of seeing them at sunny music festivals in my student days. While not having the impact on me or the charts of ‘All Change' and ‘Mother Nature Calls’ was a very good band in the prime of their careers. 

Check Out! a Video of Cast performing 'Live the Dream' on TOTP Below...

'Magic Hour' ***1/2 In 1999 they released the last album, I must admit, I was aware they had made until the ‘Troubled Times’ release of 2012. ‘Magic Hour’ was released when there was a fundamental shift in popular music going on, the Brit-Pop era was over to all intents and purposes being replaced with more dance music or heavier guitar bands dominating charts that back then mattered more than they seem to now. Again this album seemed to have what became the stand out single ‘Beat Mama’ in this case, and the title track of the record.

Check Out! a Video of Cast performing 'Beat Mama' at V99 Below...

This was a louder offering than their previous offerings but with their style still intact both in this track and across the whole album with even quieter tracks like ‘She Falls’ building more than acoustic offerings of the past. Title track is a melodic track and in my opinion one of Cast’s best across their whole catalogue, it just seems to take the best bits of the song writing, catchy tunes and vocal well. Final track on the album almost has a sound a decade ahead of it’s time with a very Elbow like sound encompassing strings and all. Overall this was probably their second best album behind ‘All Change’ but sadly the last that would gain commercial recognition.

'Beetroot' *** was released in 2001 and I must admit, having lost track of the bands career at this stage when Brit-Pop was on the wane I was not originally aware this album even existed. It was the bands final album before their hiatus, opening with the only single taken from it ‘Desert Drought’ it is instantly noticeable they have moved well away from their position back in the halcyon days of ‘All Change’ apart from John Power’s distinctive vocals still powering through. There is more of a focus on electronic sounds and Latin style rhythms certainly noticeable in ‘Heal Me’.

It is good to reinvent yourself, Radiohead style, but there is a danger that you move too far away from what people liked in the first place. A mistake a number of the Indie bands made in the early noughties. There are some strong tunes, but other than the aforementioned vocals it does not sound like what I expect Cast to. There are some good tracks on here, commercially it suffered from the Brit-Pop backlash I feel rather than to do with its own content. ‘Lose yourself’ and ‘I can never say’ have a sound from perhaps the most famous Mersey band of the Beatles and make a good contrast to the earlier electronic tracks. ‘Meditations’ offers a bit of everything and is probably the stand out track of the album being uplifting and having real energy about it.

Last song ‘Universal Grinding Wheel’ the last track to be heard on an album from Cast until 2012’s ‘Troubled Times’ again has a Beatles sound mixed seemingly with an Oompah band at the circus, again showing there was more to this album than I expected at the start. Overall this deserved more credit than it got and hopefully this reissue will give it that opportunity because I really enjoy revisiting the past and good times I had with friends. The other nice thing about these re-issues is that you get all the B-Sides and material recorded around the albums releases so you can get a great whole over view of the band through out their existence. Also their is some great photo's of them in action and in photo shoots all taken at the time of the albums release. If you are a big Cast fan or a fan of Brit-Pop music of this time like Ocean colour Scene, Oasis and Blur then you really can't ignore these releases, their well worth the money. Also the bonus DVD of video's and performances is simply brilliant and well worth watching, Cast really worked well as a live act and graced all the big festival stages.

Review by Jon Cooper

Check Out! a Video of Cast performing for 'Walk Away' on TFI Friday Below...