Tilt (The Lightning Seeds album) focusing on subjects such as the Liverpool dockers' strike, self-loathing pop stars and general disillusionment. Preceded in release a week by the single "Life's Too Short", "Tilt" was released by Epic Records in November 1999. A unique billboard campaign was developed to promote the album. The album was a commercial failure, only reaching number 46 on the UK Albums Chart. Its two singles also fared badly in the UK Singles Chart. Broudie was later unsatisfied with the album, and took the band on hiatus in 2000. After the Lightning Seeds had been a solo project for Ian Broudie, the project
Tilt (The Lightning Seeds album) slick pop band. This is not to say that "Tilt" is a bad record, however; it's quite the opposite. Some of the lyrics here are Broudie's most affected yet, and some of the arrangements are very exciting." He singled out "Life's Too Short" and "Crowdpleaser" as highlights. Nicholas Barber of "The Independent" called it Broudie's "best album yet", with "some of his strongest, most affecting melodies". It was highlighted by the newspaper as "Disc of the Week." Rob Bolton of "Exclaim!" urged readers to "get it" and noted that "the magic is still there. Broudie... knows how to please a