Dizzy Heights

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Dizzy Heights
Studio album by The Lightning Seeds
Released	11 November 1996
Length	42:50
Label	Epic
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
The Lightning Seeds chronology
Pure (1996) Dizzy Heights (1996) Like You Do... Best of the Lightning Seeds(1997)

Dizzy Heights was the Lightning Seeds' fourth studio album released in 1996 and reached #11 in the UK Albums Chart. It was re-issued in Sony Mid Price range in August 1999.

According to Ian Broudie, the album was recorded in two 'sections' - one with the band utilising live drums and bass guitar, the other using loops and samplers produced by Broudie^[1].

Contents 1 Singles 2 Non-single tracks 3 Track listing 4 Personnel 5 Singles 6 References

[edit] Singles

The first single to be released from the album was "Ready Or Not" ^[2], which featured B-side covers of Another Girl, Another Planet and Wire's Outdoor Miner. It reached #20 in the UK charts. The single version differs from that found as the penultimate track on the album.

"What If" was released October 1996 in the UK. It peaked at #14 in the charts and, continuing in the vein of the previous single, included a cover of The Beach Boys' "Here Today" ^[3] as a cassette only B-side. The single's title track, co-written by Terry Hall and Broudie, featured a poppy sound reminiscent of The Turtles' "Happy Together"^[4]. Indeed, the song is quoted as a stand out track of the album by Broudie himself, who cites The Beach Boys and The Turtles as influences behind the song^[5].

"Sugar Coated Iceberg" was co-written with Stephen Jones of Babybird, who Broudie admired as a contemporary songwriter partially due to the sense of humour exhibited in his lyrics. On hearing "You're Gorgeous" and "Too Handsome To Be Homeless" played live Broudie suggested to Jones that it would be "great to get together and write a song". According to Broudie, the words were written around the title, coming from the concept of a sugar coated iceberg ^[6].

"You Showed Me", a cover of the Turtles song and the fourth single from Dizzy Heights was originally intended to be a B-side to "What If" but it was decided by the band that the produced version was good enough to be on the LP. Coming together relatively quickly, the track utilised loops and samplers from the Turtles original, "going back to machines" as Broudie put it ^[7]. The song was to be The Lightning Seeds' most successful chart release (not including the two versions of Three Lions co-written with Frank Skinner and David Baddiel) reaching #8 in the UK.

All single releases featured on the band's 1997 Greatest Hits compilation, Like You Do, along with a re-recorded version of Waiting for Today to Happen. The four single tracks can also be found on 2006 compilation The Very Best Of.

[edit] Non-single tracks

The album opens with "Imaginary Friends", a tongue in cheek comment on modern society ^[8] and moves into a more acoustic mode in "Waiting for Today to Happen", a track written by Broudie in collabortion with with Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire ^[9]. "Touch And Go" and "Like You Do" are quoted by Broudie as being placed 'in a line' with "Life Of Riley" and "Pure" as being semi-autobiographical, which he cites along with a number of other songs from previous albums as feeling like 'one big song' to him ^[10]. "Like You Do" would provide the title of the band's 1997 greatest hits compilation though the song did not appear on the collection itself. The album closes with "Fishes On The Line" which contains lyrics bordering on the surreal and an anthemic guitar outro.

[edit] Track listing

1. Imaginary Friends – 2:44 (Broudie/Hall)
2. You Bet Your Life – 3:34 (Broudie)
3. Waiting For Today To Happen – 3:34 (Broudie/Wire)
4. What If... – 3:23 (Broudie/Hall)
5. Sugar Coated Iceberg – 3:53 (Broudie/Jones)
6. Touch And Go – 3:53 (Broudie)
7. Like You Do – 3:23 (Broudie/Hall)
8. Wishaway – 3:17 (Broudie)
9. Fingers And Thumbs – 3:21 (Broudie)
10. You Showed Me – 4:08 (Clark/McGuinn)
11. Ready Or Not – 3:50 (Broudie)
12. Fishes On The Line – 3:54 (Broudie)

[edit] Personnel

• Ian Broudie - vocals, guitars, producer
• Martyn Campbell - bass guitar, backing vocals
• Chris Sharrock - drums
• Simon Rogers - programming and keyboards
• Clive Layton - Hammond organ, piano
• Terry Hall - backing vocals
• Dave Bascombe - producer, mixer
• Angie Pollack, Carl Brown, Paul Roberts - backing vocals
• Cenzo Townsend, John Grey and Kenny Patterson - engineers

[edit] Singles

Release date	Single	Peak
26 February 1996	"Ready Or Not"	#20
21 October 1996	"What If..."	#14
6 January 1997	"Sugar Coated Iceberg"	#12
14 April 1997	"You Showed Me"	#8

[edit] References