Press Releases & Mailings

Artist: Delirious?
Label: Furious? Records
Date: 19 Jul 2001

So just where do you start with an album like Audio Lessonover? from a band like Delirious? Big up the American connection? Play the 'biggest band you've never heard of' line? Put words into your mouth that praise their left-field approach to maintaining a career in the music industry? Perhaps.

But this is a better idea: you start with the songs. You talk about how the band have emerged from the studio with a collection of tracks that are fused together to make a whole that connects with the listener from the first to the last. You point to the influence of producer Chuck Zwicky (whose talents worked wonders for Semisonic, Prince and Madonna), who has helped the band craft from within themselves a new sound. You ponder that fresh sound, relishing its ability to be both gritty yet euphoric and loving its capability for breathing sugar-pop intensity over all who hear it.

Among the big boys that can be found towel-whipping its way through the sonic showers of Delirious?' forth studio album is 'Take Me Away'. It takes out the highlighter pen and heads straight for all those lines that have ever been written about the band's love of euphoric choruses, the kind that leave you sweetend by their melodies and battered by their power. This is one of the things that Delirious? seem to do best: chuck out songs that make sense to those at the other end of the speakers, almost regardless of what was going on in the studio. Delirious? have an innate power to connect with their audience, to catch a vibe, to provide a hook that pulls people in and gets them feeling the songs right from the start. They like it big, too: so no wonder they were a natural choice to warm up over 250,000 fans during this summer's tour of the UK by Bon Jovi.

This is how it was with their first single taken from Audio Lessonover? - that cheeky sun-kissed swimsuit of a number called 'Waiting For The Summer'. It paved the way for the rest of the album, picking up with the media exposure where things were left of with their previous chart entries of 1999.

Between the smiles of 'Waiting For The Summer' and the hyperventilation of 'Take Me Away', Audio Lessonover? offers the likes of 'Love Is The Compass', 'Alien' and 'Angel In Disguise'. Between them 'Alien' has the grit, 'Angel' the tenderness and 'Compass' the sweetness to teach even the hardest heart a thing or two in the good-feelings department. Each comes vaccum-packed with a musical ingenuity and integrity that's plain to see - and it's clear why last year's support slots in New York from Feeder and Muse got the crowd nicely warmed up for Delirious?.

For a band whose sales have topped 1 million around the world there's something particularly wonderful about Audio Lessonover?: this is not the sound of a band churning out version x of their previous hits simply to ring up another round of sales from their fans. Audio Lessonover? is the noise made by those out on the hunt, ready to risk everything if necessary, but never content to sit back and take it easy. And the particular prize they're after? Yet more inspiration, fresh expression or even greater success?

Perhaps - but judging by the title of this latest album it seems like they're just keen to find out what the next lesson will have to teach them. Let's hope they keep on paying attention in class.