<\/p>\n
The Charlatans were the first band I truly loved as an adult.<\/strong> They were the crest of the Madchester wave for me, carried forward by the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. What I didn\u2019t realize then was that the Charlatans\u2019 soul-shifting song \u201cThe Only One I Know,\u201d and their transcendent debut album Some Friendly<\/em>, were quietly preparing a down-filled mattress for me to fall back on when my mother died a month after their release.<\/p>\n Their music helped drown my grief, and I sank even deeper during their ecstatic live shows\u2014of which I saw many\u2014following them up and down the West Coast more than once, and experiencing them at festivals and hometown shows in their native U.K. I stayed with them through their smooth sail into and out of the Britpop era. It was easy to stick with them because\u2014unlike so many of their \u201990s contemporaries\u2014they consistently made solid albums and never disbanded. When I pressed play on their latest, We Are Love<\/em>, I felt an instant calm the moment Tim Burgess\u2019 voice came in. It was like being gently deflated\u2014not let down, but released from tension.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n \u201cI love that. That made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck,\u201d Tim tells me when I share this with him. We\u2019ve known each other a long time, me and Tim. We met through their drummer, the late Jon Brookes who died of brain cancer in 2013, at their show at the American Legion Hall in L.A. in 1995. I was there to interview them. Jon found me outside, sat with me on the steps, and chatted for a while before bringing me to the rest of the band. That\u2019s the memory that always surfaces when I think of Jon\u2014that first meeting, his kindness and warmth. They all were like that. With the Charlatans, there was no \u201cgetting to know you\u201d phase. We immediately went from strangers to friends.<\/p>\n