Hate by The Delgados

Hate, the Delgados' fourth album, arrived on Mantra in October 2002, and for a record with that title it's awfully gorgeous. The Glasgow four-piece, Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock trading vocals and guitars over Stewart Henderson's bass and Paul Savage's drums, took the orchestral pop of The Great Eastern and kept on building. The spark came from an odd place: playing music at a Joe Coleman art show left Woodward wanting to write with less armor on.

Most of it was cut at CaVa Sound Studios in Glasgow, with more work at Chem19 and at Tarbox Road in Cassadaga, New York, and Dave Fridmann co-produced alongside Tony Doogan and the band. The arrangements swell and swoon like a film score for a very bad week. "Coming in from the Cold" led the way, followed by the gleefully titled "All You Need Is Hate". Some critics heard it as a step up from its predecessor, and the band toured it hard, all the way into Europe with Doves.

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