Can You Do Me Good

Updated on Oct 13, 2024

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Released 8 April 2002 Artist Del Amitri Label A&M Records		Length 49:42 Release date 8 April 2002 Genre Alternative rock

Recorded Glasgow; Sheffield; London; Rochester; New Jersey Producer Kevin Bacon & Jonathan Quarmby (tracks 5, 6 & 8); Pete Smith (3 & 10; 1 & 12 with additional production by Commissioner Gordon); Commissioner Gordon (all other tracks) Similar Change Everything, Waking Hours, Some Other Sucker's, Hatful of Rain, Lousy with Love

Del amitri cash and prizes

Can You Do Me Good? is the sixth and final studio album by Del Amitri. Though the band's current status is uncertain, it is widely thought to be their last, since its sales seem to have contributed to their being dropped from Mercury Records in 2002.

The album showcased a radically different sound from that to which Del Amitri fans had become used. With five years having elapsed since Some Other Sucker's Parade (1997), Can You Do Me Good? featured a new approach: drum loops, samples and synthesisers were the band's new tools. Though the songs retained their usual melodic characteristics, the overall impression was a very different one.

Theme: last cheap shot at the dream?

Guitarist and songwriter Iain Harvie admitted in the run-up to the album's release that the band's record company considered Can You Do Me Good? to be Del Amitri's last chance. "It's a pretty straightforward equation. If we don't sell 300,000 copies of the new album, we're out. It's that simple." With this in mind, many of the album's lyrics seem to convey a tone of finality; the feeling that this is a band's last stand. Song titles like "One More Last Hurrah" and "Last Cheap Shot At The Dream" contribute to this, and "Just Getting By" seems almost to lament a career spent as rock's nearly-men:

Look at me

I'm the one who got away
The one who could've shone
I tried to do my best
But I guess your best don't last for long

Look at me
Standing with my tattered pride
Of toothless little lions
We tried to make a difference

Even for a lyricist like Justin Currie, whose songs have often dealt with missed opportunities and failure, Can You Do Me Good? is significantly more concerned with these concepts than previous albums.

Track listing

All songs written by Justin Currie except as noted.

"Just Before You Leave" (Currie, Iain Harvie) – 5:14
"Cash & Prizes" – 4:38
"Drunk In A Band" – 2:44
"One More Last Hurrah" (Currie, Harvie) – 4:52
"Buttons On My Clothes" – 4:05
"Baby, It's Me" – 3:34
"Wash Her Away" (Currie, Harvie) – 3:07
"Last Cheap Shot At The Dream" – 4:12
"Out Falls The Past" – 3:13
"She's Passing This Way" – 2:44
"Jesus Saves" – 3:39
"Just Getting By" – 7:35

"Just Getting By" is followed by a hidden track: an instrumental excerpt from "The Septic Jubilee" (a song released as a B-side on the "Just Before You Leave" single) which lasts for roughly 2:20.

Personnel

Justin Currie – vocals, acoustic guitars, bass

Iain Harvie – guitars, acoustic guitars, programming, backing vocals

Kris Dollimore – guitars, acoustic guitars, backing vocals

Andy Alston – piano, organ, synthesisers

Mark Price – drums, drum loops

Jamie Siegel – engineer and mixing

Matthew Rubano – bass on "Cash & Prizes" and "Jesus Saves"

Rudy Bird – percussion on "Just Before You Leave", "One More Last Hurrah" and "Out Falls The Past"

Joe Tomino – drum loop on "One More Last Hurrah"

Chris Komer – French horn on "Out Falls The Past"

"Big Kev" – bass on "Buttons On My Clothes", "Baby, It's Me" and "Last Cheap Shot At The Dream"

"Jonathan" – "tingly things" on "Buttons On My Clothes" and "Baby, It's Me"

Chris Elliot – cello sample and "tromboney thing" on "Just Getting By"

Chris Cameron – string arrangements on "Just Before You Leave" and "Just Getting By"

Songs

1Just Before You Leave5:15
2Cash & Prizes4:39
3Drunk in a Band2:45

References

Can You Do Me Good? Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA