Can You Do Me Good?

Can You Do Me Good?
Studio album by Del Amitri
Released	April 8, 2002
Recorded	Glasgow; Sheffield; London; Rochester[disambiguation needed]; New Jersey
Genre	AC Rock
Length	49:42
Label	Mercury Records
Producer	Kevin Bacon & Jonathan Quarmby (tracks 5, 6 & 8); Pete Smith (3 & 10; 1 & 12 w/ additional production by Commissioner Gordon); Commissioner Gordon (all other tracks)
Professional reviews
Allmusic link PopMatters (favourable) link
Del Amitri chronology
Some Other Sucker's Parade (1997) Can You Do Me Good? (2002)

Can You Do Me Good? is the sixth and latest studio album by Del Amitri. Though the band's current status is uncertain, it is widely thought to be their last, since its sales seem to have contributed to their being dropped from Mercury Records in 2002.

The album showcased a radically different sound from that to which Del Amitri fans had become used. With five years having elapsed since the lo-fi Some Other Sucker's Parade (1997), Can You Do Me Good? featured a new approach: drum loops, samples and synthesisers were the band's new tools. Though the songs retained their usual melodic characteristics, the overall impression was a very different one.

Theme: last cheap shot at the dream?

Guitarist and songwriter Iain Harvie admitted in the run-up to the album's release that the band's record company considered Can You Do Me Good? to be Del Amitri's last chance. "It's a pretty straightforward equation. If we don't sell 300,000 copies of the new album, we're out. It's that simple."^[1] With this in mind, many of the album's lyrics seem to convey a tone of finality; the feeling that this is a band's last stand. Song titles like "One More Last Hurrah" and "Last Cheap Shot At The Dream" contribute to this, and "Just Getting By" seems almost to lament a career spent as rock's nearly-men:

Look at me
I'm the one who got away
The one who could've shone
I tried to do my best
But I guess your best don't last for long

Look at me
Standing with my tattered pride
Of toothless little lions
We tried to make a difference
Do something no one else had tried^[2]

Even for a lyricist like Justin Currie, whose songs have often dealt with missed opportunities and failure, Can You Do Me Good? is significantly more concerned with these concepts than previous albums.

Track listing

1. "Just Before You Leave" (Justin Currie, Iain Harvie) – 5:14
2. "Cash & Prizes" (Currie) – 4:38
3. "Drunk In A Band" (Currie) – 2:44
4. "One More Last Hurrah" (Currie, Harvie) – 4:52
5. "Buttons On My Clothes"^[3] (Currie) – 4:05
6. "Baby, It's Me" (Currie) – 3:34
7. "Wash Her Away"^[4] (Currie, Harvie) – 3:07
8. "Last Cheap Shot At The Dream" (Currie) – 4:12
9. "Out Falls The Past" (Currie) – 3:13
10. "She's Passing This Way" (Currie) – 2:44
11. "Jesus Saves" (Currie) – 3:39
12. "Just Getting By" (Currie) – 7:35

• "Just Getting By" is followed by a hidden track: an instrumental excerpt from "The Septic Jubilee" (a song released as a B-side on the "Just Before You Leave" single) which lasts for roughly 2:20.

Credits

• Justin Currie – vocals, acoustic guitars, bass
• Iain Harvie – guitars, acoustic guitars, programming, backing vocals
• Kris Dollimore – guitars, acoustic guitars, backing vocals
• Andy Alston – piano, organ, synthesisers
• Mark Price – drums, drum loops
• Matthew Rubano – bass on "Cash & Prizes" and "Jesus Saves"
• Rudy Bird – percussion on "Just Before You Leave", "One More Last Hurrah" and "Out Falls The Past"
• Jo Tomino – drum loop on "One More Last Hurrah"
• Chris Komer – French horn on "Out Falls The Past"
• "Big Kev" – bass on "Buttons On My Clothes", "Baby, It's Me" and "Last Cheap Shot At The Dream"
• "Jonathan"^[5] – "tingly things" on "Buttons On My Clothes" and "Baby, It's Me"
• Chris Elliot – cello sample and "tromboney thing" on "Just Getting By"
• Chris Cameron – string arrangements on "Just Before You Leave" and "Just Getting By"

Singles

External links

• Official Del Amitri homepage

Notes

1. ^ Official Del Amitri website, which cites "Del Amitri: We Don't Even Like Ourselves" (April 5, 2002), The Independent.
2. ^ * Currie, Justin (2002). In Can You Do Me Good? [CD liner notes]. London: Mercury Records.
3. ^ The track is named once as "The Buttons On My Clothes" in the CD inlay booklet, but twice as "Buttons On My Clothes".
4. ^ The track is named once as "Can't Wash Her Away" in the CD inlay booklet, but twice as "Wash Her Away".
5. ^ Presumably producer Jonathan Quarmby.