Mainstream

Though I bought all three of this late-Nineties UK group's singles, I somehow never bought their one and only self-titled album on Nude Records (home to Suede) when it came out in 1998. I was probably waiting for it to come out on a domestic label and it never did. 14 years later I realize it was my loss. Though four of the songs on Mainstream are on the early EPs, the other tracks make it well worth the purchase. I remember raving about the band's Verve-like sound in my old fanzine Vendetta (too lazy to look up what I actually wrote) and that rings true here. Verve before Richard Ashcroft & Co. added "The" to their name with a touch of Primal Scream Dixie Narco-esque southern rock 'n' soul smarts and you have a good idea of the Mainstream sound. "Rolled On Southern Blues" (see above) comes from the same family tree as Verve's "Man Called Sun" and The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" (minus Morrison's high school stoner lyrics).