| Back in Denim | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 11 November 1992 | |||
| Recorded | May 1990–July 1992 | |||
| Studio | Bark, RAK, Abbey Road, London | |||
| Genre | Glam rock, pop | |||
| Length | 49:51 | |||
| Label | Boy's Own Recordings | |||
| Producer | John Leckie, Brian O'Shaughnessy | |||
| Denim chronology | ||||
| ||||
Back in Denim is the debut album by British rock band Denim.
British rock band Felt broke-up in 1989, [1] while frontman Lawrence had been living in Brighton. [2] Finding Brighton to be unpleasant, [2] he moved to New York in early 1990. [3] Lawrence soon started to reminisce about his childhood in the 1970s. [2] He proceeded to visit a pawn shop and buy a guitar, which he would use to compose Back in Denim. [2] He eventually grew homesick and soon moved to London. [3] Lawrence formed Denim with a variety of "session men and ageing glitter-rockers", several of whom were members of The Glitter Band. [4] Lawrence had been receiving calls from major labels, [2] but decided to sign with dance-oriented record label Boy's Own Recordings, who had signed a distribution deal with London Records. [3] His decision to sign with them was based on his notion that "rock music was finished, and DJs could get our records into the charts." [2]
While Felt's albums were recorded with a minuscule budget for small independent labels, Lawrence had "the chance to make the album I'd always wanted" for a major label. [3] Between May 1990 and July 1992, Back in Denim was recorded and mixed with producer John Leckie. [3] [nb 1] At one point, Lawrence was banned from the studio and had pushed Leckie to breaking point, which resulted in him exclaiming: "I've worked with Phil Spector and John Lennon and Syd Barrett, but I can't take this any more. You're madder than any of them." [3] Eventually, before threatening to disown the recordings, he finished the proceedings with Brian O'Shaughnessy. [3] The amount of money that went into making the album had made Boy's Own Recordings go bankrupt. [2]
The album's sound has been described as glam rock [6] [7] and pop. [8] Tim Sendra of AllMusic claimed that for Back in Denim, Lawrence "channeled his love of simple punk, huge hooks, novelty songs, and slagging everyone". [1] Mojo review Roy Wilkinson commented that the album's "wistful examination of Britain and knowing adoption of pop styles from other eras" laid the groundwork for Britpop. [3] The album was complete with "glam and pop hooks machined to perfection with the best in 1990s recording science". [3] "Middle of the Road" features a sample of Middle of the Road's version of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". [1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| The Guardian | [8] |
| Stylus Magazine | A [10] |
It was released in November 1992 [3] on Boy's Own Recordings. [9] London Records wanted to release the album's title track as a single, but Lawrence requested to re-record the song's chorus, to which London Records cut funding for further studio time. [3] "Middle of the Road" was released as a single, with the B-sides "Ape Hangers", "Robin's Nest", and an instrumental version of "Ape Hangers" titled "The Great Grape Ape-Hangers", [11] in January 1993.
The album was received well by critics but was commercially poor. [12] Trouser Press wrote that "Denim is so well-made and sublimely thought through that even indefensible perversity suits it fine." [13]
In retrospect, Lawrence commented "The tills were closed. [...] This was my masterpiece and I would fight to death to get it right. If that meant it was going to end up selling 25 copies, then that was the way it had to be." [3] The album was reissued in May 2006 on West Midland's Records, a subsidiary of Cherry Red. Norwegian band Turbonegro covered "Back in Denim" as a bonus track at 2007 album Retox .
In 2017, Pitchfork ranked Back in Denim at number 50 in their list of "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". [14]
All songs written by Lawrence.
Blur are an English rock band formed in London in 1988. The band consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bass guitarist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Their debut album, Leisure (1991), incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegaze. Following a stylistic change influenced by English guitar pop groups such as the Kinks, the Beatles and XTC, Blur released the albums Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a widely publicised chart battle with rival band Oasis in 1995 dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".
Peter William Phipps is a rock drummer, singer and songwriter known for his work with Gary Glitter, The Glitter Band, and later Eurythmics, XTC and Denim. He is currently a member of both The Glitter Band and Mud.
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Felt were an English jangle pop band, formed in 1979 in Water Orton, Warwickshire, and led by the mononymous Lawrence. They were active for ten years through the 1980s, releasing ten singles and ten albums, although none reached the UK singles chart or albums chart. The band's name was inspired by Tom Verlaine's emphasis of the word "felt" in the Television song "Venus".
Middle of the Road are a Scottish pop group who have enjoyed success across Europe and Latin America since the 1970s. Before ABBA established themselves in the mid 70s, Middle of the Road were the sound of early europop with their distinctive harmonies and lead vocals from Sally Carr. Four of their singles sold over one million copies each, and received a gold disc: "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". "Sacramento", "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" and "Soley Soley". By early 1972 the group had sold over five million records.
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{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)Back in Denim at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
