The Delgados, hailing from Scotland, belonged to the same generation of Glasgowian folk-popsters as Arab Strap and Belle And Sebastian. Rather than simply pursuing the British school of trivial pop that stretches, largely unchanged, from the Beatles to the Smiths, the Delgados dared to experiment. The first single, Monica Webster (february 1995), the EP Lazarwalker (Radar, 1995) and second single Cincentre (1996) recalled a lo-fi version of the Pixies' oblique hard rock. The Pixies similarity remained in the best tracks out of Domestiques (Chemikal Underground, 1997): Under Canvas Under Wraps, Big Business In Europe, while the catchier Sucrose, Tempered Not Tamed and Akumulator reveal commercial potential.
Pavement and Velocity Girl inspired the dissonant lo-fi sound that took over in the most creative tracks: Leaning On A Cane, a duet between the two singers that is propelled by cello lines, and One More Questions, that swims in xylophone tinklings.

Peloton (Chemikal Underground, 1999) introduced baroque arrangements and signaled the metamorphosis to come. The singles Everything Goes Around The Water and Pull The Wires From The Wall were far more refined than anything they had done before. If Repeat Failure captured the limelight with its catchy refrain, it was the subtle songwriting of songs such as Blackpool, Actress and Weaker Argument Defeats The Stronger that set them apart.

The transformation from noise-pop to sumptuous orchestral pop was complete on The Great Eastern (Chemikal Underground, 2000). The new sound buried Alun Woodward's and Emma Pollock's unexceptional vocals under a heavy coating of sound (No Danger). Their vocal harmonies were nonetheless used to mesmerizing effects in Thirteen Guiding Principles. The band's complex, artificial, technicolor structures compared favorably with Mercury Rev's. This was hardly the same band that cut Domestiques.

Hate (Mantra, 2002), produced by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev), was even more lushly orchestral. The production is a little too smooth and bright, but this album is the natural next step in the Delgados' evolution towards a highly chromatic psychedelic sound. What is still missing is the emotions. Lush sound and oneiric atmosphere suffocate the angelic lullabies of The Light Before We Land or Woke From Dreaming. With the exception of the anthemic Coming in from the Cold, songs are content to float in the ether of their dense arrangements. The album's centerpiece is the negative philosophy of All You Need Is Hate (a surreal revisitation of the Beatles' original), The Drowning Years (the most bombastic song on the album) and Child Killers (a seven-minute existential torture), which justifies the band's success.

Universal Audio (Chemikal Underground, 2004) marked a retreat to power-pop (the Kinks-Squeeze axis, not the Beatles-Oasis hell). As it is often the case with power-pop, one listens to the first few songs (Everybody Come Down, I Fought the Angels) and then starts yawning, no matter how polite and diligent the rest is. For such an accomplished set of ditties, it is incredibly difficult to listen through till the end of the album. Maybe it should have been a four-song EP instead of a full-length album. Whatever the cause, the effect is to send the Delgados back to the drawing board, and back to their beginnings.