The Unheard Music 1: Denzil
Jun. 15th, 2020 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23A series in which I share albums that should have got more exposure. Unheard gems? I don't know. I liked them anyway.
Denzil
Pub
1994
Play/Giant Records
Denzil is a band that was centered around singer/songwriter Denzil Thomas. Their debut was released on Compact Disc on a subsidiary of Warner Bros Music. Disappointing sales means we never heard from them again. Indeed, for many years, there wasn't much about them on the internet.
The album is jangly power-pop that would easily be filed into that British songwriter genre of the likes of Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg (at his most domestic) and Robyn Hitchcock. As I sit and listen today, there's quite a bit of XTC in there as well.
There have been a few iterations of a Wikipedia page and a 2015 Reddit thread probably as much of a story that has been put together. There's not much to it. The record was released to great acclaim, but the sales were such that the Record Company didn't plan on supporting Denzil (the story alludes to demos for a second album and the wikipedia article says smaller labels were interested in the band), followed by inter-band conflict which led to Thomas taking a job writing music for ads.
It isn't that Denzil is the only artist to have released a great debut on a major label never to be heard of again, but for sure, it is such a great album, one is simply amazed that this is the road he took. It did reach some ears. Granddaddy and the Handsome Family make up some of the band's fans. Meanwhile, drummer Jeremy Stacey was a member of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and has played with everyone including King Crimson, Eric Clapton, Robbie Williams, Sheryl Crow, Joe Cocker and Ryan Adams.
Recommended track: The mini-epic that makes the record's penultimate track "Cutie"
Denzil
Pub
1994
Play/Giant Records
Denzil is a band that was centered around singer/songwriter Denzil Thomas. Their debut was released on Compact Disc on a subsidiary of Warner Bros Music. Disappointing sales means we never heard from them again. Indeed, for many years, there wasn't much about them on the internet.
The album is jangly power-pop that would easily be filed into that British songwriter genre of the likes of Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg (at his most domestic) and Robyn Hitchcock. As I sit and listen today, there's quite a bit of XTC in there as well.
There have been a few iterations of a Wikipedia page and a 2015 Reddit thread probably as much of a story that has been put together. There's not much to it. The record was released to great acclaim, but the sales were such that the Record Company didn't plan on supporting Denzil (the story alludes to demos for a second album and the wikipedia article says smaller labels were interested in the band), followed by inter-band conflict which led to Thomas taking a job writing music for ads.
It isn't that Denzil is the only artist to have released a great debut on a major label never to be heard of again, but for sure, it is such a great album, one is simply amazed that this is the road he took. It did reach some ears. Granddaddy and the Handsome Family make up some of the band's fans. Meanwhile, drummer Jeremy Stacey was a member of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and has played with everyone including King Crimson, Eric Clapton, Robbie Williams, Sheryl Crow, Joe Cocker and Ryan Adams.
Recommended track: The mini-epic that makes the record's penultimate track "Cutie"
