Hard at play
| Hard at play | ||||
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| Studio album by Huey Lewis & the News | ||||
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Publication |
January 1991 |
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admission |
1990 |
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| Label (s) | EMI | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
46:09 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Bill Snow |
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Hard at Play is the sixth studio album by the US band Huey Lewis & the News , released in 1991 . It was awarded a gold record in the USA and reached number 14 in the charts in Germany. It is the only album that the band recorded for this record company after switching from Chrysalis Records to EMI .
background
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Huey Lewis & the News had the albums Sports (1983) and Fore! In 1983 and 1986 . which had reached number one on the album charts in the USA . Sports is seven times with the platinum record , Fore! three times platinum, and both albums had been sold successfully in Europe. While Sports in Germany only managed to reach number 29 on the album charts, the band succeeded with Fore! with 5th place the jump into the top 10.
The album Small World , released in 1988, was no longer so successful despite positive reviews ( Musikexpress named it “Record of the Month” in August 1988), which was also due to a change in style: instead of “with a cross between Sports and Fore! to play it safe, ”the band wove in Jamaican, Latin American and African elements, possibly alienating old fans. Nevertheless, the album was successful in Europe: 8th place in Germany and 12th place in Great Britain corresponded to a deterioration of only three or four places in relation to the success of the previous album , while Small World in the USA almost crashed in comparison and only left place 11 could reach.
Hard at Play represented a return to the sound of Sports and Fore! The album was recorded and produced by Bill Schnee in the “ Skywalker Sound ” studio . External musicians were used for the songwriting of a large part of the songs.
Couple Days Off was initially selected as the single release . The song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA and number 40 on the singles chart in Germany. In Great Britain, the song, as well as the two singles released afterwards, did not even make it into the charts. The second release, It Hit Me Like a Hammer, reached number 51 in the USA, and the subsequently published He Don't Know chart no longer charted in the USA either, but made it to 59th place in Germany.
reception
Hard at Play reached the album charts in Germany (number 14), Great Britain (39), the USA (27), and reached its highest ranking with number 9 in Switzerland. In the USA, the album was awarded a gold record.
Musikexpress wrote that Lewis and the band dosed dynamism and power sparingly, the chorus had to "stay in your ear the first time it was heard", which it usually manages. That is "not always as likely to be a hit as with It Hit Me Like a Hammer, but always so happy, simple and compelling that every piece is simply fun". What the band has to offer live would be “ clear in the Donner Shuffle Couple Days Off at the latest : The band can create a cauldron atmosphere at every novice ball.” The previous album was “still partly characterized by reggae and multi-horned fans” , Hard at Play stands "clearly under the sign of eternal, fresh, rough-legged guitar rock and roll."
Stephen Thomas Erlewein ( allmusic ) said that the title (of the album) already suggests “a return to direct, blues-influenced pop-rock ,” which made the band “superstars of the early 80s”. Although "the material is not as strong as on Sports or Picture This ", the band rock "with renewed vigor," and a handful of the songs, such as Couple Days Off, are "as catchy as their older hits."
Track list
| Hard at play | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | title | Songwriter | Guest musician | length |
| 1. | Build me up | Johnny Colla , Huey Lewis | 4:28 | |
| 2. | It hit me like a hammer | Robert John "Mutt" Lange , Huey Lewis | 4:01 | |
| 3. | Attitude | Max Carl | 4:00 | |
| 4th | He don't know | Don Covay , Joe Tiven, Sally Tiven | The Gospel Hummingbirds | 4:15 |
| 5. | Couple Days Off | Chris Hayes , Huey Lewis, G. Palmer | David Fredericks | 4:56 |
| 6th | That's not me | Michael Ruff | Mike Duke, Michael Ruff | 4:15 |
| 7th | We Should Be Making Love | A. Goldmark, S. Kipner, S. Lindsay | 4:01 | |
| 8th. | Best of Me | B. Hayes, A. Stocking, K. Hayes | 3:57 | |
| 9. | Do You Love Me, or What? | Chris Hayes, Huey Lewis, Nick Lowe | 3:46 | |
| 10. | Don't look back | David Fredericks, Bill Gibson , Huey Lewis | David Fredericks | 3:44 |
| 11. | Time ain't money | Johnny Colla, Huey Lewis | John McFee | 4:46 |
| Overall length: | 46:09 | |||
Concert DVD
A concert of the Hard at Play tour, which took place in E-Werk in Cologne , was recorded for the TV series Rockpalast and released in 2004 on the DVD Huey Lewis at Rockpalast .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ a b Source awards (searchable databases): DE / US
- ↑ a b Musikexpress / Sounds, issue 08.1988, page 84
- ↑ a b Review at allmusic.com : As the title indicates, Hard at Play is a return to the straight-ahead blues-inflected pop / rock that made Huey Lewis and the News superstars in the early '80s. While the material wasn't as consistently strong as Sports or Picture This, the band rocked with a renewed vigor and a handful of songs, including the anthemic hit "Couple Days Off," were as catchy as their older hits. , accessed on May 27, 2016
- ↑ Musikexpress, issue 09.1991, page 105