With the benefit of hindsight the mid-to-late 90s were a particularly strange time for British music. The most uninspired and backwards-thinking of bands managed to routinely achieve million-selling albums and Top 5 singles, seemingly making a virtue of their ordinariness. Astonishingly, Cast’s All Change became the fastest-selling debut in Polydor’s history, somehow eclipsing efforts by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and The Jam.
After becoming frustrated with the The La’s’ lack of progress, bassist John Power took stock and worked on his own material. Once signed, success came quickly to the band and John Leckie was drafted in to oversee recording. (Interestingly, though, Power’s demo recordings are collected on the second disc of this collection and often prove more subtle and charming than their final versions.)
The resulting All Change establishes Cast as a Gerry & The Pacemakers to Oasis’ Beatles, Power cooing quasi-mystical rhyming dictionary nonsense over tired mod clichés. On occasion, such as lead single Fine Time, they achieve a verve and immediacy that helps them rise from such depths but, on the whole, All Change has dated badly and it’s difficult to see exactly who this reissue is for.
