Description
The Charlatans – Up To Our Hips – 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition – Double Blue Petrol Vinyl Records
The Charlatans’ Up To Our Hips is a swaggering, groove-loaded turning point in their early run—an album that takes the band’s baggy/psych roots and tightens them into something sharper, funkier, and more street-ready, right as Britpop was beginning to dominate the conversation. Released in 1994 on Beggars Banquet, it’s built around driving basslines, punchy drumming, and acid-tinted keyboards, with guitars that alternately jangle, bite, and bloom into warm, dirty shimmer. There’s a confident, strutting momentum to the whole record: songs lock into muscular, danceable rhythms, then ride that pulse into choruses that feel both sunlit and slightly menacing—like a night out that’s fun until it suddenly isn’t.
What really makes Up To Our Hips stick is its balance of grit and uplift. Tim Burgess delivers some of his most charismatic vocals of the era—cool, melodic, and slyly emotional—while the band sound like they’re playing to a packed floor rather than polishing things for radio. The production (led by Steve Hillage, alongside the band) gives the music space to breathe, letting the low end thump and the organs/synths glow, but keeping enough rough edge that the tracks still feel urgent and physical. It’s an album that understands the Charlatans’ secret weapon: they can write proper pop songs, but they wrap them in groove and atmosphere so they hit with both immediacy and mood.
The singles-era highlights underline how varied the record is without losing cohesion. “Can’t Get Out of Bed” is all brisk drive and melodic snap, “I Never Want an Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There” leans into a more anthemic, emotional surge, and “Jesus Hairdo” brings a spikier, more confrontational energy that still rides a hard, rhythmic backbone. But even beyond the headline tracks, Up To Our Hips has that deep-album satisfaction—cuts that feel made for repeat spins, where the grooves get under your skin and the small keyboard and guitar details start to reveal themselves more each time.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Come In Number 21
I Never Want An Easy Life If Me And He Were Ever To Get There
Can’t Get Out Of Bed
Feel Flows
Autograph
Jesus Hairdo
Up To Our Hips
Patrol
Another Rider Up In Flames
Inside-Looking Out
Subterranean
Full Of Culture
Out
Up To Our Hips (Recorded Live For The Steve Lamaq And Jo Wiley Show)
Stir It Up (Altermate Instrumental Mix)
Withdrawn
Feel Flows (Alternate Mix)
You & Everybody
Dont’ Let It Stand Aka Can’t Get Out Of Bed
Another Rider Up In Flames (Recorded Live For The Steve Lamaq And Jo Wiley Show)
