The follow up to “Dust” wandered into the shop one Friday morning amongst a bunch of discs by the Grateful Dead, Deep Purple and M*tall*ca <spit> so rather than make it available I decided to re-unite it in my collection with it’s older sibling. It was released a year after “Dust”, again by local Brummie Indie label Chapter 22 which was originally also home to Pop Will Eat Itself and early singles by Balaam & The Angel and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin.

The sound hasn’t changed so much since “Dust”, this was only a year later after all, well written Indie Rock, slashing guitars, gruff vocals and a feel of America about it. It maybe doesn’t have the standout song(s) like “Dust” does”, there’s certainly nothing that matches “A Kind Of Kingdom” (but then to my ears not many bands ever produced anything as good as “A Kind Of Kingdom”) but that’s not to say this is a bad record. Opening song “Take Me For A Ride” grabs you attention from the off and the following “Broken Chains” (even though it begins just like “Needles & Pins”) is a great tune. The whole record has much more of that feel of Americana about it.

The Wild Flowers went on to become the first British band signed to the American “punk rock” label Slash Records (before they were subsumed by Warner) and released 2 more albums after this one before riding off into the sunset at the end of the 90’s. They still do the occasional gig, I recall seeing singer Neal Cook and guitarist Dave Atherton do an acoustic thing in a park in Wolverhampton a few summers ago. They were an integral part of that Black Country scene that ultimately birthed the Stourbridge Sound (TWS, PWEI, Neds etc.) which became part of the late 80’s/early 90’s Indie boom (Carter, Senseless Things, Darling Buds etc.). Good memories of a great time musically around the Midlands.

Take Me For A Ride - https://youtu.be/DHxBj5dDPGw?si=yW7LWh_ln8KRR3uB