Craig Stephen looks back at a pure, bona fide “semi-classic” album from a band who surely deserved a lot more love ...
Britpop seemed to make anything possible at its peak in the 1990s.
It made stars of the mediocre and created a scene for people starved of any youth movement for a decade or so. It drew in a range of acts whose only qualification was that they played guitars, and were British.
Gene were both part and aloof from the retro-friendly movement. Led by Martin Rossiter, and aided by Steve Mason, Kevin Miles and Matt James, their heart-wrenching lyrics, sexual ambiguity, and a love of life’s underdogs would soon have the hacks comparing them to The Smiths, Gods to many of the period’s stalwarts. But the comparison was a little misguided as they were just as much influenced by The Jam, The Faces, and The Stone Roses.
After the sparkling, critic-friendly debut of Olympian and a lavishly-produced and sprightly written second, Drawn To The Deep End, they embarked on a new turn: the suits and white shirts were packed off to the op shops, replaced by Fred Perry polo tops, a look that was complimented by trips to the barbers for enthusiastic trims.
Revelations thus was a musical, ahem revelation, of Detroit-heavy brute force, angry politicised songs and a band sounding on edge. Released in 1999 at a time when the New Labour government of Tony Blair had proven itself to be a professional con-job as its veneer of radicalism was soon exposed by its devotion to extreme capitalism and division.
The betrayal of millions was summed up as “When red became blue/ Hope denied,” a line from the single ‘As Good As It Gets’.
The Mod-like album opener was a brutal take-down of the direction the country was taking, and the ingrained class division that had long blighted the United Kingdom. It was a state-of-the-nation address and while its message was primarily that politicians could never be relied on to enact radical change, there was always the hope that one day the thieving rich might get their comeuppance.
“Be careful in life and you'll see/ The greedy live off you and me/ This is the code, we can't break history/ The greedy still fear you and me.”
It was a theme returned to on ‘Love Won’t Work’, which is delivered with the type of forlorn bitterness Rossiter was highly adept at.
“Some thrive, we try to keep ourselves alive/ Strike first, the rich must be deprived/ Or Highgate armies will arrive/ I've seen the light.”
Perhaps the most striking example of Gene’s disgust with contemporary politics was displayed on ‘Mayday’, which resurrects Britain’s revolutionary Minister of Health in the 1945 Labour government Nye Bevan, hailing him as a true socialist and radical. Rossiter envisages Bevan spinning in his grave as the party (Labour) nears ever closer to terminal decline, a prophecy that has proven to be on the mark. This is now the party of Peter Mandelson and his cronies who have infiltrated it and stripped it bare of all its original intentions.
The ode to binge drinking ‘Fill Her Up’ contains Spanish horns and is one of the more uplifting and memorable tracks. ‘The English Disease’, ‘Angel’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Again’ are among a string of powerful and venomous heavyweights, which demand to be played louder. ‘The Police Will Never Find You’ is a curious item, a song about violence and revenge, displayed in a bovver-boy manner as Rossiter warns his intended victim: “Your face is my canvas/ And Stanley my brush.”
At the other end of the scale, ‘Something In The Water’ is a slow-burning melancholic ballad that runs on for too long, but such mournful sounds are rare on this album.
At the time of its release, many critics didn’t take to Revelations as kindly as they should have, which is partly due to a desire to leave the embers of Britpop to cool out and move on to the next big thing. But, revisiting it so many years later it’s apparent that this is a hidden gem, a delight of rock music with a swagger and attitude in abundance.
Following this, Gene left their major label Polydor due to disagreements over promotion and formed their own label. On it they would release a final opus, Libertine, before going their merry ways.
Revelations was reissued and remastered in 2014 as a double CD with the second disc full of excellent B-sides and a live set. One day it might get the full, multi-disk super special deluxe treatment. Or maybe not.
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