Sweet Deceit

Everyone knows not to judge an album by its cover. However, sometimes we can’t resist the visual attraction created to tempt the unwary customer. Have you ever bought an album just for the cover? How did it turn out?

One such album for me was The Bathers – Sweet Deceit. Released in 1990, it has 15 songs coming in at just over 47 minutes. I bought it in Listen, or was it Echo, on Byres Road in Glasgow.

The album was on tape and when you opened the cover it expanded to show all the lyrics and credits, although a magnifying glass would have been helpful as the record shop wasn’t a fountain of natural light!

Looking at the cover, there is little to suggest that the album was recorded by a Glasgow band. Nothing that gave a clue to the beautiful arrangements, lyrics and, in particular, vocals of Chris Thomson that lay behind each song.

And yet, almost 34 years on, I still consider it one of the prize albums in my collection and upgraded first to CD and then vinyl in the intervening years. In 2020 the band went back into the recording studio to re-imagine the album tracks. The remixed album brings out many of the subtleties that were possibly hidden in the original masters. As a re-interpretation of the original, it is certainly a good set of re-mixes. For me though, the original remains the basis of my fondness for the tracks recorded.

If you haven’t heard of The Bathers, then they are a slightly difficult band to categorise. Acoustic, melodic, classical, melancholy, indie and more could be used to describe this album. It’s one for when a quiet reflection of life is required.

The Pursuit Of An Orchid
Two Cats On The Piano
Memory Fever
For The Delicious C
Desire Regained
Get Out Of Life
Pistol Crazed
The Wreck In The Bay
Reason To Feel
Memory Fever (2)
The Idyll Off Crown Circus
Perpetual Adoration
Sweet Deceit
The Honeysuckle Rose
On The Steps At Park Circus

The first clues to its Glasgow connection undoubtedly lie with the tracks The Idyll Off Crown Circus and On The Steps At Park Circus, two well kent addresses in Glasgow’s West end. Working for 20 odd years a couple of streets away from Crown Circus was also a persuasive argument for being interested in the album.

And, as if to confirm this notion of locality, you listen to the opening lines on side 1, track 1

Followed you one night
From the Glasgow School of Art

Whatever ‘Sweet Deceit’ took place, the songs appear to revert back to a central love story, imaginary or real we may never know.

As standalone tracks they convey a sense of love lost in the recent past. Taken together as an album, the songs could sit seamlessly behind a silent movie of one man pursuing the girl of his dreams with flashbacks to the good times they had together.

The album kickstarted my own love affair with The Bathers. Further releases strengthened the notion that Chris Thomson is one of the great song writers and vocalists to come out of Scotland.

And yet, the tangible success which came the way of their peers, eluded Chris and the band.

Yes, there is a hardcore of support who continue to follow them across Scotland to see them live, buy the albums on release day and laud then to the high heavens. Music critics are/were, in the main, positive about each album and live performance.

2023 saw the release of their latest album, Sirenesque. It has all the elements of Sweet Deceit and the band are still playing live.

Sometimes an album cover can be a gateway into a beautiful world of storytelling and melodies. Sweet Deceit opened the door to The Bathers and, according to the credits which I am able to read, the illustration was by Ashley Pearce.

If you like structured songs, melodies lush with orchestration, vocals to die for and story telling at its best, then give the playlist a listen to. It might open the same doors the album did for me.