Lighthouse Family 'Raincloud'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

Paul Tucker and Tunde Baiyewu are the Lighthouse Family... Theur debut album has now sold in excess of 1.5 million copies in Britain and this latest single, 'Raincloud', from their new album was a mega No. 6 success in October '97.

Is there really such a thing as a "mega No. 6 hit"? 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol probably counts, actually, but that sold over a million and has spent literally years in the chart. 'Raincloud' is a respectably-sized hit and helped save the duo from being a one-album wonder, but that's the most that can be said of it commercially.

As any regular reader would know, I'm no admirer of the Lighthouse Family, even though I've discovered acts I hate even more since; yet I've ended up owning two copies of this track since it's one of the few tracks that defied the stereotype and ended up on both a Now album and a Hits album (I don't own many Hits albums, but I do happen to have New Hits 98). And of course I remember hearing it at the time too, if only on Top 40 rundowns. I'm glad I listened back to it again today though: not because I particularly enjoyed the song but because I discovered that I'd misheard a lyric 17 years ago. He's not actually singing "Let the daylight in on a bed of nails", which would at least have been a distinctive turn of phrase, but the more trite "Let the daylight in on a better day". To me that typifies the competent but empty work of the pair; like almost all their songs it strains to be uplifting but it's just too platitudinous to have any effect. Presumably that's why I haven't heard this song since about 1998 (other than when listening to compilation albums) and why nobody seemed to notice when they got back together in 2011. According to their Twitter, they've split again now so Tunde can release a covers album.

Also appearing on: Now 33, 34, 39, 40, 41, 50
Available on: The Very Best Of

Lighthouse Family 'Lifted'

Chart Peak: 4 [originally 61 in 1995]

YouTube

1995 saw the release of two great Lighthouse Family singles - ''Ocean Drive' and 'Lifted' - strangely, they were only minor hits... It all looks so different in 1996 as 'Lifted' has already become a huge No. 4 hit and people are waking up to their soulful vibes. 

There is of course a video for this song, you've probably seen it. If you haven't, it's on some video sharing sites but the record company have in their infinite wisdom chosen to remove all uploads of it from YouTube. That sort of thing could put me off a track if it wasn't by the Lighthouse Family, whom I already hated.

Call me a grumpy old git, but I have an inbuilt resistance to simplistic positivity. Not that I'm not a fundamentally optimistic soul beneath the curmudgeonly exterior, but I always feel like an upbeat sentiment is something a song has to earn. Don't just tell me things are going to be great, I could tell myself that and if I'm not in the mood to believe me, I'm hardly going to take your word for it either. I can be moved by uplifting songs or other art of course - but they have to make that case themselves, they have to feel like they've experienced the joy, and maybe even the sadness it's saved them from too. Although you could make a theoretical argument that the re-issue of 'Lifted' proves its own point - turning what was a pile of unsold cassette singles in WH Smith after the flop original release into a Top 5 smash - but the track itself is emotionally inert. It doesn't help that the band went on to release a whole series of singles from their first two albums essentially saying the same thing, the repetition inevitably cheapening the sentiment and making it sound more like a commercial choice than an emotional one.

Since I have ceased to be a teenager and, I like to think, become considerably more open-minded (musically at least) since the chart run of this song, I was half-hoping to have warmed to it by now. And it's true that on the odd occasions when I hear it nowadays I don't actually dislike it with anywhere near the same intensity I did in 1996. But the closer listen I've given the track for blogging purposes isn't really what you'd call flattering; I thought I might admire it more even if I didn't like it but the production sounds incredibly cheap and tacky -  especially the drum machine - and the whole thing is even more cloying.

Also appearing on: Now 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 50
Available on: Greatest Hits

Lighthouse Family '(I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be) Free/One'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

The first single from the Lighthouse Family's long-awaited new album brings together an unlikely combination of two classic songs - Nina Simone's '(I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be) Free' and U2's 'One'... Paul claims that a successful third album from the band does not depend on financial reward, "It's never been about money, we'd just like these songs to be heard... I'd love to play to play to 50,000 people and hear them singing these songs."

I suspect there might be an out-of-context element here, but I have to say that quite a lot of people had heard these two songs beforethe Lighthouse Family got anywhere near them. Indeed, this is the second cover of 'One' to show up on a Now album (though the U2 original never made it) and even if you thought you hadn't heard the Nina Simone track, you might know it as the theme from Film 92, Film 93, Film 94 or whatever.

To be fair, the intro to this track is actually quite pleasant, maybe thanks to the influence of producers Bacon & Quarmby. Once the actual singing takes over, though, the passionate civil-rights anthem drains into mediocrity, and by the time it's segued into one of Bono & Co's most affecting moments, it's a struggle to get through. The best thing I can say about this single is that there weren't many more after it: despite their chart domination in the later 90s, the Family struggled to cope with the new century, and after only one more Top 40 hit ('Run' - another track that's good for the first 30 seconds) and a couple of flops they were gone, pausing only to release the same Greatest Hits album twice within six months. Few seemed to shed tears over their demise, or indeed notice. Apparently they've just got back together though.

Also appearing on: Now 33, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41
Available on: Whatever Gets You Through The Day

Lighthouse Family 'Lost in Space'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

Hey, is that 'Away In A Manger' in the intro?
I've mentioned before the seemingly endless stream of Lighthouse Family hits in the second half of the decade, and here we are again with the third of five singles from their second album. That equates to exactly half the tracks from the album, which would be bad enough if there was a wealth of outstanding and varied material on there. This being the Lighthouse Family, of course, there isn't; only the resemblance to a nursery rhyme distinguishes this from most of their other successful releases. It's all impeccably smooth and tidy, but none of the sentiment can really cut through. Even the title is unfortunately un-distinctive: just weeks before this entered the charts, little-remembered Britpoppers Electrasy made their Top 75 debut with a different 'Lost In Space' and by the time it dropped out, Apollo 440 were in the Top 10 with their version of the movie theme.

Also appearing on: Now 33, 34, 38, 39, 41, 50
Available on: Greatest Hits

Lighthouse Family 'Ocean Drive'

Chart Peak: 11 (34 in 1995)

YouTube

Maybe the trouble with the Lighthouse Family wasn't so much that they were actually that bad. They just seemed to be utterly inescapable in the second half of the decade, although their career barely made it into this one.
In fact, I seem to remember hearing 'Ocean Drive' around the time it became their first Top 40 hit in late 1995 and actually thinking it was OK. But this re-release followed their breakthrough hit 'Lifted' and paved the way for what felt like an endless run of indistinguishable, glossy, self-consciously uplifting anthems that all seemed to sell in huge quantities to people who didn't really seem to like music. Was I being a snob here? Well, maybe, but I wasn't making it up.

'Ocean Drive' is, I think, their least bad single, distinguished by a soaring trumpet solo. And whilst it's never going to be my favourite record, in a different universe I might have been able at least to appreciate it as well put together. It suffers a little from the comparison with the above Crowded House track though - there's none of the complexity in this one, so all you get is the platitudes. The sound is too slick, and it never really seems to recognise the darkness of the situation it's trying to talk you out of, so it feels like an empty gesture, just telling you you'll get over it without persuading you.


Also appearing on: Now 33, 38, 39, 40, 41, 50
Available on: Ocean Drive