Devil Hopping by Inspiral Carpets

Devil Hopping, the fourth album from Oldham's Inspiral Carpets, came out on Mute on 7 March 1994, a few years on from the Madchester boom the band had ridden. Pascal Gabriel produced it, and he gave it its name by accident: the title is how he pronounced the word "developing".

The band's calling cards are all there, churning organ and fuzzed-out guitar with a psychedelic tint, but the tunes run tougher and leaner. The big moment is "I Want You", which in its single version drafts in the Fall's Mark E. Smith, his sneering bark colliding with the band's garage-pop drive, while "Saturn 5" shows off their brighter, poppier side. It was the end of the road with Mute, which dropped the band after the record came out; The Singles followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.