You Cross My Path is the tenth studio album by British rock band the Charlatans, released on 3 March 2008 as a free download from radio station Xfm's website.

Following promotion for the band's ninth studio album, Simpatico (2006), frontman Tim Burgess and manager Alan McGee devised an idea to give away their music for free.

Guitarist Mark Collins and keyboardist Tony Rogers visited Burgess in Los Angeles, California, where they would write new material, and followed this up with jam sessions with the whole band in early 2007.

Recording sessions were split across Hollywood, California, Blessington, Ireland, and Cheshire, Greater Manchester, with Rogers given a separate producer credit independent of the band.

"Mis-Takes" appeared as the fourth single from it in July 2008; over the next two months, they played at a few festivals and held a live show in New Zealand at the end of the year.

[9] After ultimately deciding on giving away music, they made some terms to stick to: they needed it to be the best album they could write; it had to be given away to the highest number of people as was possible; and they had to "go into it wholeheartedly".

They planned to record with Youth or Wonderland producer Danny Saber;[13] when hearing a demo of "You Cross My Path", McGee also proposed Alan Moulder.

[17] Recording sessions were done in Hollywood, California, Blessington, Ireland, and at Big Mushroom Studios in Cheshire; the album's booklet gives Rogers a separate producer credit independent of the band.

[18] Discussing the varied locations they worked in, he explained that they had a computer and recording gear and made it wherever they decided to visit,[19] using the Logic Pro DAW software.

[14] Musically, the sound of You Cross My Path has been described as electro[25] and pop,[26] taking influence from krautrock,[27] compared to the work of Kasabian,[26] New Order,[27][28][29][30][31] and Simple Minds.

[30] AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it continues the foundation set by their fifth album, Tellin' Stories (1997), re-treading that release's mixture of "contemporary and classic, perhaps even gently favoring the modern as this does emphasize sound over song.

[27] "Bad Days" is an up-tempo pop rock[40] and synth-pop track[25] that Gill said was full of "skittish disco hi-hats, striding bass and [an] electropop synth motif".

[42] Erlewine wrote that it has a cold keyboard atmosphere that "uncannily sounds like a new wave relic" without disregarding the band's signature grooves.

[14] The Austin Chronicle writer Marc Savlov said it starts with an acid-like "barrage of electro before segueing into more familiar, Pacific Coast Highway rock-out territory".

[40] Burgess acknowledged that it shared the same chord progression with "Circus of Death" (1978) by the Human League and "Sunrise" (1985) by New Order,[48] and that the drum beat was a pre-set pattern on Logic Pro.

[44] Samar Grewal of Rolling Stone India said it was a "modal sonic exploration", complete with the "hum and drone of guitars, freely interweaving organ, low piano notes, even ululation, all tied together by nifty hi-hat and cymbal work," comparing it to "Trainspotting" (1997) by Primal Scream.

[30] With it, Burgess began pondering if his "best days were behind me"; he stylised the word in all-capital letters as a reference to David Lynch using uppercasing in his film Inland Empire (2006).

McGee theorised that this could be a business model in the future, reasoning that the band would receive more money from gig attendees, people purchasing their merchandise, and publishing fees regardless.

[57] The director general of the Entertainment Retailers Association, Kim Bayley, said this method would stall upcoming acts' ability to make money from putting their music on sale.

[8] "You Cross My Path" was released as the album's lead single digitally on 22 October 2007;[58] its music video was directed by Charles Mehling, who was one of Burgess' first friends in Los Angeles and only charged them one tenth of his usual fee.

"[63] You Cross My Path was made available through the band's own website on 17 March 2008,[64] and was promoted with a one-off show at the London branch of the Hard Rock Cafe on 24 April 2008.

[10] Gigwise's Jon Bye felt that the "limited offering of this very album as a free download [...] failed to have the same impact as the likes of Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails.

[10] The Sunday Telegraph writer Juliette Garside noted that In Rainbows had a compulsory charge, albeit a handling fee of 45p for credit card purchases.

"[33] Michaela Annot of Drowned in Sound wrote that the album "chooses to resolutely endorse the same style of music that they've offering up for the past twenty years."

Her sole issue was Burgess' "vocal delivery and maudlin lyrics", and while it was not an "invigorating brew," the mix of "swirling Hammond and ponderous bass and drums stays on the right side of tepid most of the time.

Savlov thought that the album served as its "own tribute LP, layering the best bits" of Burgess' "emotionally disconnected couplets atop the band's trademark soaring keyboards and insistently hummable guitars.

"[40] Pitchfork contributor Ian Cohen thought it was "possibly their strongest work since Tellin' Stories" but was unsure if it was a causality of the "times or its own merits; it's the sort of thing that's so competent that it's more likely to be defined by its failures than its success.

Launch's Jason Draper said that there was "nothing wrong with paying respect to past loves, but it's not enough to be Manchester's indie survivors simply replicating 'Madchester' club sounds.

(2009) about record stores, author Graham Jones lamented the declining sales of CDs in independent shops, writing that the situation "would be even worse" if acts followed Charlatans' directive.

He noted that while the band was happy with receiving 30,000 fans to download it, the only individual that would not be was their "accountant who saw them get zero pounds in sales for an album that cost thousands to record.