THE SUN IS OFTEN OUT by LONGPIGS (1996, Mother)

Massively underrated and largely forgotten Sheffield's Longpigs knocked out two cracking albums. Their debut, THE SUN IS OFTEN OUT is packed with great indie songs which still hold up now. They weren't swaggering Britpoppers and were always on the fringe of that scene. Maybe that's part of the reason their brand of alternative rock or 'whingy indie' sounds less dated now than the output of Menswear, The Bluetones etc.

The album contains the singles 'Lost Myself', 'She Said', 'Far', 'Jesus Christ' and the achingly beautiful 'On and On'.

Singer and songwriter Crispin Hunt seems to have dissapeared off the face of the earth which is a huge shame. He has a emotionally expressive voice, was a great songwriter and was a charismatic front man, especially live. The one good thing about the Longpigs collapsing is that it forced guitarist Richard Hawley to go solo and record a series of stunning albums.

'JESUS CHRIST'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPDMq8fs3s

'LOST MYSELF'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fdbblQ2HMc

'ON AND ON'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P-oRJ-5M0A