Tellin' Stories (1997)

Coming out fighting after Robs death they produce three top 10 singles and their best selling album. The songs rock like never before - One to another reaches 3 in the UK singles chart and is an instant classic. You're A Big Girl Now hints at future directions. Festival headline slots and sold out tours follow. Justice to believers indeed!

Rating 4/5

Chart position: 1

Reviews

Pete (thecharlatans.info 2001)
Released in the aftermath of Rob Collins's tragic death, Tellin' Stories was set to be a defining moment in the bands career.

With No Shoes gets the album off to a flyer with a lovely, sleazy, almost care free vibe, funky and choppy and here to make ya groove, feeling good, right from the outset. The lyrics may have darker edges but the underlying feeling behind this track, is of defiant, in your face optimism.

North Country Boy hits next and this has Bob Dylan written all over it, underpinned by a sweet Hammond melody driving us to newer and happier places, the song flows like they mean it totally. Lyrically, vocally and emotionally charged, it's a cool slice of demanding tune that you can't help but fall in love with.

The title track is next, Tim revealing greater lyrical poise than most thought possible, a wonderful flowing demonstration of maturity and increasingly enlightened song writing. A highlight.

Ouch! One To Another! Oh man! Christ, this takes it to the next level and beyond, a track that reinvigorated diehard fans and recruited a new and eager audience, this surprised the hell out of a lot of people. Possibly the best Charlatans single ever, rocking and seething like a bad attitude, just waiting to burn. This jumps, soars and blasts, like a bolt of lightning from nowhere, yes, it's what the world was waiting for.

Oooohhh You're A Big Girl Now is track 5 and this slows the pace down, it compensates for the sheer massiveness of One To Another. Big Sentimental and very much sitting on the streets, watching the wheels go by. Another great move and a bright signal for the future.

How Can You Leave Us kicks in next and has obvious links, "How can you leave us, how can you, bleed on us" brings back memories, remarkably, its uptempo, eupohric and healing. A wonderful yearning chorus and sweet heart churning melodies make this very special.

Area 51, Alien invasion anyone? This is a haunting, spooky-strange instrumental, questions, questions, questions….. A Funkarama!

Pop returns with How High, and its another corker, delivered with style, conviction and a little smile, this is a little rocket ship of a song that sets the airwaves and charts alight yet again. Gorgeously uplifting and generous, it's the charlatans. Saver.

Big drums, classic melodies and personal, emotional lyrics launch Only Teething and its funky Hammond Stabs with panoramic, open, atmospheric harmonics all the way. Flowing, drifting, building, imaginative and so alive. Class.

Get On It. Oh such heart warming, glowing sentiment make this a healer beyond the reach of anybody else, put the track on, listen to the lyrics and feel loved, feel real and feel part of something. Tim, telling it for real, stretches out further than ever, its beautiful stuff, and it rocks too, this is almost a two parter, part one, gushing and loving, part two rocking in the Who's Pinball Wizard fashion, wild, happy smiley and fun - yet again the Charlatans.

Album closer, Robs Theme, is a chilling, Hammond, funk out that closes the record perfectly. Can't say more than that.

Mark Cooper (Q Magazine 1997)
The Charlatans have turned surviving into an art form. Since they surprised all but their closest friends by topping the charts with their fourth album in September 1995, the band have tragically lost their keyboards player, Rob Collins, who died in a car crash while recording this fifth outing last July.
Collins's trademark Hammond remains a vital part of this exhilarating set (his licks are supplemented by additional contributions from Primal Scream's Martin Duffy) which takes their trademark blend of rock'n'groove to new heights. The trio of opening tracks, With No Shoes, first single North Country Boy and the title track are simply the best songs The Charlatans have ever recorded: great grooves, strong melodies, nonsensical Zen poetry from Burgess and plenty of furious riffing from emerging guitar hero Mark Collins. True, Side Two falters, but Tellin' Stories completes The Charlatans' transformation from also-rans to British perennials.