Electric Landlady | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 24 June 1991 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1991 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 51:49 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | Steve Lillywhite | |||
Kirsty MacColl chronology | ||||
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Electric Landlady is Kirsty MacColl's third studio album. Released in 1991, it was her second Virgin Records release and second collaboration with producer/husband Steve Lillywhite. The title is a pun on Jimi Hendrix's album Electric Ladyland . [2]
Electric Landlady was MacColl's most successful U.S. release, owing to the lead track "Walking Down Madison", which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The longest song of the album, it features guest vocals by rapper Aniff Cousins, and was originally written for Alison Moyet. [3]
In a 1991 interview with Melody Maker , MacColl spoke of her intention for the album's direction in comparison to her 1989 album Kite, "I was listening to Kite for the first time in a while and I thought, 'Well that's really good, but I could make the next album even more enjoyable for myself if I could actually dance to it without being paralytic! But I didn't want to make an album with computers. A lot of people think that dance means you have to have the beats per minute on the sleeve, but, to me, a waltz is a dance." Speaking of the larger number of co-writes on Electric Landlady, she added, "With Kite, I felt I had to prove that I wasn't this bimbo girl-next-door I'd been portrayed as. I wanted to make the point that, yes, I can write a song, pal! I didn't feel that I had to prove myself this time." [1]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
Entertainment Weekly | B− [5] |
NME | 6/10 [6] |
Select | [7] |
Upon its release, Andrew Mueller of Melody Maker considered the album to be disappointing in comparison to the "frequently brilliant" Kite. He felt that melodically there "aren't any tunes to speak of" and noted the lack of MacColl's "customary razor wit" in the lyrics. He summarised, "Kite was such a great album because it was happy to be an album of great pop songs. Electric Landlady is such a resounding duffer because it's so pointlessly eclectic that you can't get a grip on it anywhere. It's like Kirsty's decided that she wants to impersonate every band she's ever lent that gorgeous voice to at least once." [8] Steve Lamacq of NME considered it "an adult but very confused record". He believed MacColl was "probably writing as well as ever", but felt the album featured too many guest musicians and producers who "all know too much about recording", resulting in "too much [of an] emphasis on arrangements and production, which detracts from the actual mainspring, Kirsty's voice/lyrics/simplicity". He concluded, "Electric Landlady, as a whole, has a lot of things you like - outspokenness and invention - but buries them under the weight of professionalism." [6]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Walking Down Madison" | Kirsty MacColl, Johnny Marr | 6:35 |
2. | "All I Ever Wanted" | MacColl, Marshall Crenshaw | 3:51 |
3. | "Children of the Revolution" | MacColl, Marr | 4:00 |
4. | "Halloween" | MacColl, Mark E. Nevin | 3:38 |
5. | "My Affair" | MacColl, Nevin | 5:25 |
6. | "Lying Down" | MacColl, Pete Glenister | 4:51 |
7. | "He Never Mentioned Love" | MacColl, Jem Finer | 3:53 |
8. | "We'll Never Pass This Way Again" | MacColl, Nevin | 4:33 |
9. | "The Hardest Word" | MacColl, Hamish MacColl | 4:36 |
10. | "Maybe It's Imaginary" | MacColl, Nevin | 2:13 |
11. | "My Way Home" | MacColl, Glenister | 4:27 |
12. | "The One and Only" | MacColl, Nevin | 3:42 |
Total length: | 51:49 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Origin | Length |
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13. | "Don't Go Near the Water" | Mike Love, Alan Jardine | B-side to "My Affair" | 2:34 |
14. | "One Good Thing" | MacColl, Glenister | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" | 3:37 |
15. | "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby" (feat. Billy Bragg) | Fred Berk | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" | 3:26 |
16. | "My Affair" (Bass Sexy mix) | MacColl, Nevin | B-side to "My Affair" 12" | 7:04 |
17. | "Walking Down Madison" (6am Ambient mix) | MacColl, Marr | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" 12" | 4:58 |
Total length: | 74:03 |
The first disc contains the twelve tracks from the original album.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Origin | Length |
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1. | "One Good Thing" | MacColl, Glenister | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" | 3:37 |
2. | "The Hardest Word" (Alt. Take 3) | MacColl, MacColl | Previously unreleased; outtake from the Electric Landlady sessions | 5:02 |
3. | "Walking Down Madison" (6am Ambient Mix) | MacColl, Marr | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" 12" | 5:46 |
4. | "Walking Down Madison" (Extended Urban Mix) | MacColl, Marr | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" US CD single | 6:36 |
5. | "Walking Down Madison" (LP Extended Mix) | MacColl, Marr | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" UK CD single | 6:36 |
6. | "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby" (feat. Billy Bragg) | Berk | B-side to "Walking Down Madison" CD single | 3:26 |
7. | "All the Tears That I Cried" (with the Pogues) | MacColl, Nevin | B-side to "My Affair" | 3:31 |
8. | "My Affair" (Ladbroke Groove Mix) | MacColl, Nevin | B-side to "My Affair" 12" | 6:05 |
9. | "My Affair" (Bass Sexy Mix) | MacColl, Nevin | B-side to "My Affair" 12" | 7:03 |
10. | "My Affair" (Olive Groove Mix) | MacColl, Nevin | B-side to "My Affair" 12" and CD single | 6:26 |
11. | "Don't Go Near the Water" | Love, Jardine | B-side to "My Affair" CD single | 2:34 |
12. | "All I Ever Wanted" (Re-recorded single version) | MacColl, Crenshaw | Single, 1991 | 3:30 |
13. | "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" (BBC Session) | MacColl, Philip Rambow | B-side to "All I Ever Wanted" CD single; The Nicky Campbell Show, broadcast 26 June 1991 | 3:49 |
14. | "Walk Right Back" (BBC Session) | Sonny Curtis | B-side to "All I Ever Wanted" CD single; The Nicky Campbell Show, broadcast 26 June 1991 | 3:48 |
15. | "Darling, Let's Have Another Baby" (BBC Session; feat. Billy Bragg) | Berk | What Do Pretty Girls Do?, 1998; The Nicky Campbell Show, broadcast 26 June 1991 | 2:38 |
16. | "A New England" (BBC Session; feat. Billy Bragg) | Bragg | B-side to "All I Ever Wanted" CD single; The Nicky Campbell Show, broadcast 26 June 1991 | 3:27 |
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. [9]
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Chart (1991) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [11] | 86 |
UK Albums (OCC) [12] | 17 |
"Fairytale of New York" is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and recorded by their London-based band the Pogues, featuring English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song is an Irish folk-style ballad and was written as a duet, with the Pogues' singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl playing the female character. It was originally released as a single on 23 November 1987 and later featured on the Pogues' 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Kite is the breakthrough second album by Kirsty MacColl, released in 1989. Produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, it was her first album for Virgin Records. The album included MacColl's hit cover of the Kinks' "Days", as well as two tracks written with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. On 6 October 1989, it was certified silver by the BPI.
Hoodoo is the third solo studio album by English singer Alison Moyet, released by Columbia Records on 22 April 1991 in the United Kingdom and on 27 August 1991 in the United States. It reached No. 11 on the UK Albums Chart and features the singles "It Won't Be Long", "Wishing You Were Here", "Hoodoo" and "This House".
Galore is a compilation album released by Kirsty MacColl in 1995. It features material previously released on the studio albums Desperate Character (1981), Kite (1989), Electric Landlady (1991) and Titanic Days (1993), among other tracks by MacColl, totalling eighteen songs. Some of the tracks differ from their original releases; a couple of songs, such as "Innocence", are alternate takes, while "Miss Otis Regrets" is a different edit that omits the second half, "Just One of Those Things", performed by the Pogues. On release the album peaked at No. 6, MacColl's highest ever charting album.
Titanic Days is the fourth studio album by Kirsty MacColl, released in 1993. Containing eleven tracks, Titanic Days was sometimes hard to get in years after its release, but it was remastered and re-released in 2005 by ZTT with a second CD of non-album tracks and some live recordings, including a version of "Miss Otis Regrets". In 2012, another remastered re-issue of the album was released by Salvo/ZTT, which again featured a second disc of bonus tracks. This is the final album to be produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, before they divorced several years after the release.
"My Affair" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1991 as the second single from her third studio album Electric Landlady. It was written by MacColl and Mark E. Nevin, and produced by Steve Lillywhite. "My Affair" reached No. 56 in the UK and remained in the charts for two weeks. A music video was filmed to promote the single.
"Days" is a song by the Kinks, written by lead singer Ray Davies, released as a single in 1968. It also appeared on an early version of the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. It now appears as a bonus track of the remastered CD. On the original Pye 7N 17573 label, the name of the song is "Day's" owing to a grammatical error.
"A New England" is a song written and recorded by Billy Bragg, included on his album Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, released in 1983. It remains a signature song from the early years of Bragg's recording career.
"Don't Come the Cowboy with Me Sonny Jim!" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1990 as the fourth and final single from her second studio album Kite. It was written by MacColl and produced by Steve Lillywhite. The song reached No. 82 in the UK and remained in the charts for four weeks. A music video was filmed to promote the single, directed by Sarah Tuft.
Dreams That Money Can't Buy is the second solo album by English singer Holly Johnson, released by MCA Records in 1991. The album was produced by Andy Richards, except "Penny Arcade" which was produced by Dan Hartman.
Kirsty Anna MacColl was an English singer and songwriter, daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl. She recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and cover versions of Billy Bragg's "A New England" and the Kinks' "Days". Her first single, "They Don't Know", had chart success a few years later when covered by Tracey Ullman. MacColl also sang on a number of recordings produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, most notably "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. Her death in 2000 led to the "Justice for Kirsty" campaign.
"Walking Down Madison" is a 1991 song by Kirsty MacColl featuring Aniff Cousins. It charted at No. 23 on the UK Singles Chart and impacted a number of Billboard charts.
"Free World" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1989 as the lead single from her second studio album Kite. It was written by MacColl and produced by Steve Lillywhite. "Free World" reached number 43 in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for seven weeks.
Pete Glenister is an English guitarist, songwriter and producer, known for his work with Alison Moyet and Kirsty MacColl. He has also worked with a number of other artists including Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bruce Foxton, Terence Trent D'Arby, Bros, E. G. Daily, Mary Coughlan, Geoffrey Williams, Five Thirty, Bryan Ferry and Raphael Gualazzi.
"Innocence" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1989 as the third single from her second studio album Kite. It was written by MacColl and Pete Glenister, and produced by Steve Lillywhite. "Innocence" reached No. 80 in the UK and remained in the charts for four weeks. The song's music video was filmed in the back garden of MacColl's home in Ealing. It was directed by Sarah Tuft and features a cameo appearance from Edward Tudor-Pole.
"Caroline" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, released in February 1995 as a single from her compilation album Galore. The song was written by MacColl, and produced by Victor Van Vugt and MacColl. "Caroline" reached number 58 in the UK Singles Chart and remained in the top 100 for two weeks.
"Can't Stop Killing You" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1993 as the second single from her fourth studio album Titanic Days. It was written by MacColl and Johnny Marr, and produced by Victor Van Vugt and Baboon Farm. The song reached No. 20 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks and remained on the chart for seven weeks.
"Dear John" is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader, which was released in 1994 as the third and final single from her second studio album Eddi Reader. It was written by Kirsty MacColl and Mark E. Nevin, and produced by Greg Penny. "Dear John" reached No. 48 in the UK and remained in the charts for two weeks. In 1995, the song was nominated for "Best song musically and lyrically" at the Ivor Novello Awards.
"In These Shoes?" is a song by British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 2000 as the second single from her fifth studio album Tropical Brainstorm. It was written by MacColl and Pete Glenister, and produced by MacColl, Glenister and Dave Ruffy.
"All I Ever Wanted" is a song by British singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, which was released in 1991 as the third and final single from her third studio album Electric Landlady. It was written by MacColl and Marshall Crenshaw, and produced by Steve Lillywhite.