SONG OF THE DAY [#337]

'untouchable' | rialto

ah, rialto. look up 'britpop casualities' in the dictionary and you'll see that picture to your left. sure, there were a load of bands during that four explosion and some, like the terrible menswe@r, deserved to be forgotten and/or banished to musical purgatory.

others, like rialto, just got lost in the shuffle. maybe it was their blatantly theatric, slightly melodramatic [dare i say pretentious. pretension is kind of hard to avoid when you have two drummers], but undeniably infectious brand of fuzzy pop. maybe the world wasn't ready for a lead singer as stupidly good looking--and as perfectly named--as louis eliot. who knows. it's a mystery for the ages.

whatever the case may have been, rialto disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared like the proverbial bolt of lightning. oh, but what a bolt it was. 'untouchable' is undoubtedly one of my favorite songs of the era. it's what i imagine barry manilow singing over a john berry-penned james bond theme song might sound like. i know you are thinking that sounds like an awesome description and you'd be right in thinking so. rialto's a great band. i wish they hadn't faded so quickly, or at the very least got their dues. oh well. if nothing else, we have a terrific, self-titled album. cheers, fellas!

→ rialto: untouchable | video
→ rialto: hard candy
→ rialto: lucky number
→ rialto: monday morning 5:19 | video