| Dizzy Heights | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 11 November 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1995–1996 | |||
| Studio | Eel Pie | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, Britpop | |||
| Length | 43:00 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer |
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| The Lightning Seeds chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Dizzy Heights | ||||
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Dizzy Heights is the fourth studio album by British alternative rock band The Lightning Seeds, released in 1996, and reached No. 11 in the UK Albums Chart. It was re-issued in Sony Mid Price range in August 1999.
Dizzy Heights was recorded at the Eel Pie Island studio, a barge on the River Thames Ian Broudie had rented from Pete Townshend of The Who. [1] Work on the album was halted midway through 1996 so Broudie could concentrate on "Three Lions," which the Football Association had approached him to write, in time for Euro 96. [2]
According to Broudie, the album was recorded in two 'sections' – one with the band utilising live drums and bass guitar, the other using loops and samplers produced by Broudie. [3]
The first single to be released from the album was "Ready or Not", [4] which featured B-side covers of "Another Girl, Another Planet" and Wire's "Outdoor Miner". It reached No. 20 in the UK charts. The single version differs from that found as the penultimate track on the album.
"What If..." was released October 1996 in the UK. It peaked at No. 14 in the charts and, continuing in the vein of the previous single, included a cover of The Beach Boys' "Here Today" [5] as a cassette-only B-side. The single's title track, co-written by Terry Hall and Broudie, featured a poppy sound reminiscent of The Turtles' "Happy Together". [3] The song is regarded as a stand-out track of the album by Broudie himself, who cites The Beach Boys and The Turtles as influences behind the song. [6]
"Sugar Coated Iceberg" was co-written with Stephen Jones of Babybird, who Broudie admired as a contemporary songwriter partially due to the sense of humour exhibited in his lyrics. On hearing "You're Gorgeous" and "Too Handsome To Be Homeless" played live, Broudie suggested to Jones that it would be "great to get together and write a song". According to Broudie, the words were written around the title, coming from the concept of a sugar-coated iceberg. [6]
"You Showed Me", a cover of the Turtles song and the fourth single from Dizzy Heights, was originally intended to be a B-side to "What If..." but it was decided by the band that the produced version was good enough to be on the LP. Coming together relatively quickly, the track utilised loops and samplers from the Turtles original, "going back to machines" as Broudie put it. [6] The song was to be The Lightning Seeds' most successful chart release (not including the two versions of "Three Lions", co-written with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel) reaching No. 8 in the UK. By the time the song was released as a single, drummer Chris Sharrock had left the band to join Robbie Williams' backing group, and new percussionist Zak Starkey took his place in the video.
All single releases featured on the band's 1997 greatest hits compilation, Like You Do , along with a re-recorded version of "Waiting for Today to Happen". The four single tracks can also be found on 2006 compilation The Very Best Of .
The album opens with "Imaginary Friends", a tongue-in-cheek comment on modern society [7] and moves into a more acoustic mode in "Waiting for Today to Happen", a track written by Broudie in collaboration with Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire. [3] "Touch and Go" and "Like You Do" are quoted by Broudie as being placed 'in a line' with "The Life of Riley" and "Pure" as being semi-autobiographical, which he cites along with a number of other songs from previous albums as feeling like 'one big song' to him. [6] "Like You Do" would provide the title of the band's 1997 greatest hits compilation though the song did not appear on the collection itself. The album closes with "Fishes on the Line" which contains lyrics bordering on the surreal and an anthemic guitar outro.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| Wall of Sound | 74/100 [9] |
Andy Gill of The Independent criticised the "clichéd and unimaginative" nature of tracks such as "Imaginary Friends", blasting "Fingers and Thumbs" and the 'flimsy' "Wishaway" as borrowing too heavily from the Beatles. [10] Billboard's Jonathan Cohen was equally as critical of "Wishaway" and "Touch and Go" on his website Nude as the News, claiming the album is "sucked into a netherworld of redundant riffs". Special criticism is reserved for "Sugar Coated Iceberg" which, according to Cohen, is ruined by "cornball" synth programming, and although "Ready or Not" and "Imaginary Friends" are praised, the album as a whole is described as "un-original". [11]
The Spectator's Marcus Berkmann was slightly more praising of Dizzy Heights and indeed the first five Lightning Seeds albums, albeit in retrospect, in his 2006 article 'Seeds of Joy'. [12] Steven Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide is also largely praising of the album, stating that a number of "terrific moments" "keep Broudie's reputation as a pop craftsman intact". [13]
All songs written by Ian Broudie (except where stated).
Not including remixes, this is a list of all b-sides released by The Lightning Seeds during the 96-97 Dizzy Heights phase.
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Technical
| Release date | Single | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| 26 February 1996 | "Ready or Not" | 20 |
| 21 October 1996 | "What If..." | 14 |
| 6 January 1997 | "Sugar Coated Iceberg" | 12 |
| 14 April 1997 | "You Showed Me" | 8 |
Terence Edward Hall was a British musician who came to prominence as the lead singer of the 2-tone band the Specials, and later recorded with groups such as Fun Boy Three, the Colourfield, Terry, Blair & Anouchka, and Vegas.
The Lightning Seeds are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1989 by Ian Broudie, formerly of the bands Big in Japan, Care, and Original Mirrors. Originally a studio-based solo project for Broudie, the Lightning Seeds expanded into a touring band following Jollification (1994). The group experienced commercial success throughout the 1990s and are well known for their single "Three Lions", a collaboration with David Baddiel and Frank Skinner which reached No. 1 in the UK in 1996 and 2018, with a re-worked version also reaching the top spot in 1998.
Ian Zachary Broudie is an English musician and singer-songwriter from Liverpool. After emerging from the post-punk scene in Liverpool in the late 1970s as a member of Big in Japan, Broudie went on to produce albums for artists including Echo & the Bunnymen, the Fall, the Coral, the Zutons and the Subways.
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Care were an English new wave band formed by Paul Simpson and Ian Broudie in 1983 in Liverpool, England. Care was created after the split of the Wild Swans when singer Paul Simpson came together with guitarist Ian Broudie. The first single was released in June 1983.
The Colourfield were an English band formed in 1984 in Manchester, England when former Specials and Fun Boy Three frontman Terry Hall joined up with Karl Shale and ex-Swinging Cats member Toby Lyons. Despite the fact that all three members were from Coventry, the band was based in Manchester.
The Very Best of The Lightning Seeds is the second official greatest hits album by British alternative rock band The Lightning Seeds. It was released on 12 June 2006, peaking at number 33 on the UK Album Chart.
Like You Do... Best of The Lightning Seeds is the first greatest hits album by English alternative rock band The Lightning Seeds, released on 10 November 1997. The album includes the band's singles from 1989 up until the album's release, plus two previously unreleased tracks and one new version of a song from a previous studio album. "What You Say" was released as a single from the album in December 1997 and peaked at number 41 on the UK Singles Chart.
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Cloudcuckooland is the debut album by British band the Lightning Seeds, released in 1990. "Pure" was the band's first hit in the United Kingdom, and their only top 40 entry in the United States.
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"Delicious" is a 1994 song by English Britpop band Sleeper, written by the band's vocalist and guitarist Louise Wener along with band guitarist Jon Stewart, and produced by Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds.
"Pure" is a song by British music group the Lightning Seeds from their debut album, Cloudcuckooland. Released in June 1989, the song peaked at No. 16 in the UK. The track is the band's sole entry on the US Billboard Hot 100's top 40, peaking at No. 31, and was the first hit for the band on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking at No. 8 in May 1990.
Four Winds is the sixth studio album by the rock band The Lightning Seeds. It was released in 2009 through Universal. The record is the band's first album of new tracks since 1999. The first single, "Ghosts", was released on 11 May 2009.
"You Showed Me" is a song written by Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn of the Byrds in 1964. It was recorded by the Turtles and released as a single at the end of 1968, becoming the group's last big hit in the U.S. The song has also been covered or partially incorporated into other songs by a number of other acts over the years, including the Lightning Seeds, Salt-N-Pepa, Lutricia McNeal and Madison Beer.
"Man of the World" is a song recorded by Fleetwood Mac in 1969, and composed by vocalist and lead guitarist Peter Green. After the group signed to Immediate Records that year, the label collapsed shortly after the single's release. As such, "Man of the World" is the only Fleetwood Mac single under the Immediate Records label.
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