I WAs The King, I Really Was The King

Animals that Swim today and their album, I was the King, I really was the king. Just to remind you, I am going through all of my CD albums in the order that they are on the shelf, they are alphabeticised, but loosely, so all the A’s are together but not massively so. I play one CD for the entirety of my commute, there and back, regardless of its quality.
So Animals That Swim. We bought an EP of theirs prior to getting this album, Pink Carnations and it is potentially one of my favourite ever EP’s, released around the time Pulp and My Life Story’s very British sound was reasonably popular, Animals that swim could only do good right? Well they did get a bit of press from the NME and their like but they didn’t set the world on fire. I was the king, I really was the king was the album that followed up that ep, and the themes run a similar path, without sounding too Jilly Gouldon, I get council estates and student living, songs of faded glamour, like Bet Lynch on her second return to the street. I possibly would never have dug this album out again, I have a lot of CD’s and it is easy to over look particular ones and this is one. I really enjoyed hearing it again, the first time in over 5 years I will wager and think it is definitely one of the better A’s. It also prompted me to make a CD of the best A tracks for Lisa. 7 out of 10.