Small World (album)
| Small World | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Huey Lewis & the News | ||||
|
Publication |
1988 |
|||
| Label (s) | Chrysalis Records | |||
|
Format (s) |
||||
|
Title (number) |
10 |
|||
|
running time |
45:38 |
|||
| occupation | ||||
|
Huey Lewis & the News |
||||
|
||||
Small World is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Huey Lewis & the News . It was the last record the band made for Chrysalis Records, and it marked a departure from the sound of the award-winning Sports and Fore! with himself.
background
Small World was recorded at Studio D Recording in Sausalito and mixed at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley . It represented a sonic departure from the four previous works, because instead of “with a cross between Sports and Fore! to play it safe, ”the band wove in Jamaican, Latin American and African elements. In doing so, she also took the risk of alienating old fans.
Front man and singer Huey Lewis explained about the making of the album: “I have recorded four albums with my band so far, and all of them were stylistically located in the same corner. I had the feeling that it was time for a drastic change: it should be more idiosyncratic, more demanding and also musically surprising. It was important for us to do something different - something that we can also be proud of as musicians. "
For the title track of the album, Small World, the band was able to win over the legendary saxophonist Stan Getz , who refined the song with “a perfectly composed solo”. The actually 7:55 minute long piece was divided into two almost equally long parts, which opened page 1 of the record release ( Small World (Part One) ) and ended ( Small World (Part Two) ). For Old Antone’s , the group strengthened itself with Bruce Hornsby , who played the accordion and contributed backing vocals . Other musicians who contributed to the recording of the album as instrumentalists included the Tower of Power wind section (Greg Adams (arranger), Emilio Castillo (tenor saxophone), Stephen Doc Kupka (baritone saxophone), Lee Thornburg ( Trumpet) and Steve Grove (tenor saxophone)) also the percussionist Peter Michael.
In addition, the following musicians contributed as background singers to individual songs:
- Ralph Arista
- Dwight Clark
- Michael Duke
- Riki Ellison
- Jerome Fletcher
- David Fredericks
- Joel Jaffe
- Ronnie Lott
- Joe Montana
- Jim Moran
- David Tolmie
- James Watts Vereecke
reception
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 ( Fore! ), While Small World in the USA almost crashed in comparison could only reach 11th place. Fore! had previously occupied first place. The first single released from the album , Perfect World, was still charting in the USA and Great Britain, the subsequently released songs World to Me and Walking With the Kid could no longer record a placement on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US either .
Musikexpress praised the album and described it as a real band album that was "not tailored to the rough frontman every minute". The group acted “everywhere safely and with relaxed precision.” Small World screams to be “carried out of the studio onto the big wide world of the stage”. Instead of staying in the "low-oxygen mountain air of commerce and success", Lewis and his band go "to the lowlands of the provinces, the" little world "." The reviewer highlights the individual stylistic elements that characterize the album and explains that the only foreign composition, Perfect World, has a large proportion of Ska , while Old Antone’s " features a style blend of TexMex , Zydeco and a fiesta atmosphere". Slammin ', on the other hand, is a homage to sixties soul . In addition, the horn section is praised by Tower of Power : "Perfect staggering of voices , excellently worked out solos, wonderfully safe interaction between the formation flight of the winds and the ground staff on drums, bass and guitar." The album is a "small, sloppy masterpiece with great party Qualities, fast, danceable, in a good mood. ”The fact that the“ initially weak-chested songs also gain in dimension ”proves the“ secret quality of the LP. ”Musikexpress named it record of the month.
The album also met with criticism in the USA: Stephen Thomas Erlewine from allmusic says in retrospect that the album's “simple lyrical platitudes” would be acceptable if the band had written “catchy pop songs”. Instead, the group “tried to get to the roots of American music like Zydeco and Blues”, but only the top ten hit Perfect World was a song that “could keep up with the best material in the group”. Because, as Give Me the Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy) proves, The News failed to deliver a "hook that could compete with earlier hits".
The Los Angeles Times criticized a global tour that supposedly inspired Huey Lewis & the News to the jazz and reggae influences featured on their fifth album. But as far as the lyrical content is concerned, Small World sounds as if the band had "got no further than Disneyland." The reviewer goes into the content of individual songs on the album, only to determine, after some critical comments, that they are going beyond the goal shoot for "just talking about the downy substance" of what Lewis is singing. He heads “one of the best bands” there is, and Small World is “a hammer from a party album”. Lewis' "clever move" is to offer the band, which is supported on half of the pieces by the "razor-sharp brass section of Tower of Power", many opportunities to be in the limelight. Lewis little world is "a happy theme park, free of demons, and therefore also free of substance". But also “unrealistic fun” is “still fun”, and on Small World Huey Lewis would deliver it “just as well as they always did”.
Patrick Goldstein, who also wrote for the Los Angeles Times, published a top ten list of the worst pop albums of 1988 on January 8, 1989. Small World ranked 8th.
Track list
| Hard at play | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | title | Songwriter | Guest musician | length |
| 1. | Small World (Part One) | Chris Hayes , Huey Lewis | Stan Getz ( tenor saxophone ) solo | 3:50 |
| 2. | Old Antone's | Johnny Colla , Huey Lewis | Bruce Hornsby ( accordion ) | 4:45 |
| 3. | Perfect World | Alex Call | 4:04 | |
| 4th | Bobo Tempo | Sean Hopper , Lewis, Ciambotti | 4:35 | |
| 5. | Small World (Part Two) | Hayes, Lewis, G. Palmer | 4:05 | |
| 6th | Walking With the Kid | Hayes, Palmer, Lewis | 3:57 | |
| 7th | World to Me | Hayes, Lewis | 5:16 | |
| 8th. | Better Be True | Colla, Lewis | 5:17 | |
| 9. | Give Me the Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy) | Bill Gibson , Huey Lewis, S. Lewis | 4:35 | |
| 10. | Slammin ' | Hayes, Palmer, Adams | 4:31 | |
| Overall length: | 45:38 | |||
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b booklet of the CD
- ↑ a b Musikexpress / Sounds, issue 08.1988, page 84
- ↑ Huey Lewis on the new album, Musikexpress, issue 08.1988, page 84
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Musikexpress / Sounds, August 1988, page 84
- ↑ Review at allmusic.com , accessed on May 28, 2016
- ↑ There's Only Good News From Huey Lewis: CHECK LIST **** Great Balls of Fire *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Running on Empty Los Angeles Times, July 31, 1988 , accessed May 28, 2016
- ↑ The Worst of '88 ... From the Bottom Up, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1989 , accessed May 29, 2016