BATHERS - Summer Lightning

After a long period of obscurity and hard-to-find recordings, Chris Thompson has returned to the scene with a series of acclaimed live performances, which have revived the Bathers' reputation as a cult band, culminating in a reissue of the old albums, starting with the celebrated trilogy of CDs recorded for Marina Records.

"Summer Lightning" is yet another retrieval of old Bathers recordings, a set that collects the tracks from the two EPs "The Candide" and "The Unusual Place To Drive" (previously available only digitally), revisited and enriched with some unreleased tracks and new versions of old compositions.

An album that doesn't add much to what we already know about Chris Thompson and co.: there are tracks that nicely represent the refined, poetic chamber-pop ambitions ("Time Regained", "Latta's Dream") or the folk-pop suggestions of their early days ("Candid", "Perpetual Adoration"), to which have been added unreleased songs that will delight the most loyal fans and which in any case underline a skilled and never banal songwriting style (the title track above all).

Thompson's baritone voice is as always the absolute protagonist, both in the crooner-style reworking of the first single "Fancy Dress" and in the contemporary "Take Me Back To The Brooklands", two tracks that also serve to anticipate the upcoming reissue of the debut "Unusual Place To Die", the only album by the band never released on CD.

For fans of this underrated and little-known Scottish band, "Summer Lightning" is a delightful collection, while for newcomers I'd recommend a direct, in-depth approach with the three albums made for the German label Marina, especially if you're lucky enough to come across the original recordings rather than the ones reworked for this recent reissue.