Never Loved Elvis

The Wonder Stuff: Miles Hunt (vocals, guitar, harmonica, percussion); Malc Treece (vocals, guitar); Martin Bell (guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, accordion, piano); Paul Cifford (bass); Martin Gilks (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Kirsty MacColl (vocals); Elly Newton, Alison Gabriel (violin); Genene Edwards (viola); Judith Fleet (cello); James Taylor (Hammond organ).
Personnel: Miles Hunt (vocals, guitar, harmonica, percussion); Malcolm Treece (vocals, guitar); Kirsty MacColl (vocals); Martin Bell (guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, accordion, piano, programming); Alison Gabriel (violin); Judith Fleet (cello); James Taylor (organ); Martin Gilks (drums, percussion, programming).
Audio Mixer: Mick Glossop.
Liner Note Author: Miles Hunt.
Recording information: Town House, London, England.
Photographer: Andrew Catlin.
The Wonder Stuff's third and best album (although their 1988 debut, The Eight-Legged Groove Machine, is pretty wonderful), 1991's Never Loved Elvis, is the album that made Miles Hunt and company at least temporary superstars in the U.K. (It also got them the most commercial exposure they ever achieved in the U.S., where the Kinksy, music hall-styled single "The Size of a Cow" was a big college radio hit.) It departs from the first two albums by de-emphasizing the dance rhythms and Buzzcocks-like guitars and (courtesy of new multi-instrumentalist Martin Bell) adding fiddle, banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and accordion to the mix. Kirsty MacColl's inimitable vocals add another excellent texture to a couple of songs, especially the folk-rocky "Welcome to the Cheap Seats." There's a much sweeter sound to this unapologetically poppy album, and even Hunt's lyrics are less snide and arrogant than before. The disappointing follow-up, 1993's Construction for the Modern Idiot, shows that the Wonder Stuff couldn't maintain this creative high for long, but Never Loved Elvis is one of the better U.K. pop albums of 1991. ~ Stewart Mason