Jase on The Lightning Seeds

- another page from Jase's CD Collection -

I first heard the Lightning Seeds in 1994. No, that's not true. I had heard "Pure" on the radio, but I didn't know that it was the Lightning Seeds. In 1994, my sister got a free Jollification album at a concert she had attended. I listened to it and thought it was great. The songwriting reminded me a lot of the Beatles and a little of Candyflip. I picked up the rest of the Lightning Seeds catalog pretty slowly, but I haven't been disappointed with any of the albums.

The Lightning Seeds started out as Echo and the Bunnymen producer Ian Broudie's solo project. He worked with several people on his first three albums. Some names show up pretty consistently on every album: Simon Rogers, Ian McNab (or McNabb - it shows up both ways), and Terry Hall. Broudie actually organized a band for the fourth album, Dizzy Heights and went on a pretty extensive tour. Ian Broudie is, however, primarily a producer. He continues to produce other artists' albums in between Lightning Seeds albums.

Ian Broudie has an interesting voice. It's kind of high, and it doesn't have a lot of body. It isn't a really commanding voice, but it blends well with the music. I told my wife once that if I had the time and money to record my music in a studio it would sound like the Lightning Seeds. The music is mostly keyboards accompanied by whole-chord acoustic guitar. I really like the sound of it. While a lot of the songs sound similar, I look forward to the next Seeds album.