Artist	Song
Catherine Wheel	Strange Fruit
Catherine Wheel	I Want To Touch You
Catherine Wheel	Delicious (single version)
Catherine Wheel	Glitter
Catherine Wheel	Heal
Catherine Wheel	Intravenous
Catherine Wheel	Judy Staring At The Sun (Tanya Donelly lead vocal)
Catherine Wheel	Backwards Guitar
Catherine Wheel	Tumbledown
Catherine Wheel	Crank
Catherine Wheel	Lifeline
Catherine Wheel	Ma Solituda
Catherine Wheel	Idle Life
Catherine Wheel	Lucifer
Catherine Wheel	Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck
Catherine Wheel	These Four Walls
Catherine Wheel	That's When I Reach For My Revolver

Comment:

[Note: Apologies for the image size -- I tried submitting a smaller version, but it's denying me right now.] Part 1 of 2. Where to begin? Catherine Wheel is my favorite band, ever. I have yet to hear a band as violent, erotic, rapturous, and (sometimes) evil. When a co-worker asked for a primer, I knew immediately that one disc would not do. Two discs, and I still had a hell of a time cherry-picking from their six excellent studio albums and assortment of b-sides, non-album tracks, and live songs. I like leaving certain "classics" off because it leaves a discovery on the album, but I did try to include most of the obvious. This disc starts off with "Strange Fruit", from Chrome, because it shared "kick-off song" duties with "Ballad of a Running Man" on the 2000 tour. Some singles here: "I Want To Touch You", "Delicious", "Judy Staring at the Sun" (this version with Tanya Donelly singing the second verse -- her record company prevented its appearance on Happy Days), and "Crank." "Backwards Guitar", from Like Cats and Dogs, is easily in my top five CW songs ever, with Brian Futter's soaring/searing guitar bridge that's enough to move me to tears each time I hear it; "Tumbledown", my favorite track from Ferment; "Glitter", which was included on the UK pressings of Happy Days, and is better than about 90% of the songs that made it on the album proper (U.S. version -- they couldn't ditch "Fizzy Love"??); "Lucifer", which is essentially a polished-sounding demo from the Adam and Eve sessions, and is an instant classic -- deranged and dangerous; members of Mission of Burma have cited this version of "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" as one of -- if not THE -- best; and, of course, "Eat My Dust..." in all its near-ten-minute glory. "Intravenous" was featured on the soundtrack to Gregg Araki's "Nowhere", and is another track that deserves to be heard by more people. This volume starts off with a three-song punch of sex sex sex, including several (thinly) veiled references to oral sex, which seems to be a recurring theme in Rob Dickinson's lyrics -- nothing wrong with that! Eroticism is an essential, and subtle, facet of this band -- the undercurrent behind every barely-controlled guitar outburst and beneath Rob Dickinson's distinctive, breathy tenor. (Fans of Elbow take note: Guy Garvey has as much Rob Dickinson in his singing as he has Peter Gabriel.) Never content to be merely shoegazers, CW not only had chrome-plated guitars and a gauzy-voiced singer, but a kickass rhythm section in Neil Sims and Dave Hawes (who departed the band before 2000's Wishville). These songs have depth, and ooze with overwhelming emotions they can hardly contain. Acolytes of the House of Love, they were harder and darker than Guy Chadwick (bless him) could ever manage. (The seed of CW's career is in HoL's "Love In A Car", I swear.) My wish is that more people would discover their importance in the wake of this shoegaze/post-punk/Britpop revival. I miss them. Desperately.

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