Del Amitri: Some Other Sucker's Parade

Over the course of its first four albums, the Scottish group Del Amitri has consistently flirted with big-time success: Songs like 1990's "Kiss This Thing Goodbye," 1992's "Always The Last To Know" and 1995's "Roll To Me" periodically remind fans of the band's existence, but Del Amitri hasn't been able to maintain a string of hits from a single album. The new Some Other Sucker's Parade may not change that, but it should. Frontloaded with impossibly catchy, harmony-intensive, richly produced pop songs ("Not Where It's At," "Won't Make It Better," the terrific title track), the album would provide a year's worth of radio hits in a perfect world. It has flaws to be sure: "High Times" sounds inexplicably like INXS, and though ballads like "Mother Nature's Writing" are lovely, there are a few too many morose drags like "No Family Man" and "Lucky Guy." Still, singer Justin Currie has a marvelously expressive, unmistakable voice—it conveys both warmth and bitterness in a single breath—and there are plenty of should-be smashes to provide Del Amitri with the fame it deserves.