Small Time (album)

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Small Time
File:Small Time (album).jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 2012 (2012-10)
Recorded1991
Genre Indie
Art rock
Length42:38
Language English
Label Cherry Red
Producer David Westlake
Luke Haines
The Servants chronology
Disinterest
(1990)
''Small Time''
(2012)

Small Time is the second album by British indie band The Servants. It was recorded in 1991 but had to wait twenty-one years for release in 2012 on the Cherry Red label.

Contents

Context

Cherry Red Records released Small Time in 2012, following the inclusion of the Servants' first album, Disinterest (1990), in Mojo magazine's 2011 list of the greatest British indie records of all time. [1]

Luke Haines remembers the painstaking recording of Small Time in his 2009 book Bad Vibes: "The demos are great, but the album never gets made". [2] In his sleevenotes to the finished album, Haines describes the songs as "looser, more mysterious, strange and beautiful, [. . .] and sounding . . . like nothing else really." [3]

Reception

The album was well received. In Mojo , Kieron Tyler said "It's a sound and style that has to be heard, from a unique band that merits an instant reappraisal." [4] In Record Collector magazine, Tim Peacock said the album had "an undernourished, if endearing demo-like quality" which showed "Westlake at his nervy, playful best." [5] At PopMatters , Matthew Fiander called Small Time "the darker counterpart" to Disinterest , [6] with Tim Sendra at AllMusic noting the album's "wonderfully literate and off-kilter songcraft." [7]

Release history

Cherry Red Records issued Small Time in double-CD format in October 2012. The second disc - Hey Hey We're The Manqués - is a collection of first-album-era demos.

Captured Tracks issued Small Time and Hey Hey We're The Manqués as a gatefold double album in December 2013.

Track listing

CD

LP

Personnel

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References

  1. Prior, Clive (2011). "100 Greatest British Indie Records of All Time". Mojo - Indie Special. p. 123.
  2. Haines, Luke (2009). Bad Vibes . London: William Heinemann. p.  10. ISBN   978-0-09-952226-3.
  3. Haines, Luke (2012). Small Time. London: Cherry Red.
  4. Tyler, Kieron (March 2013). Mojo. p. 102.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. Peacock, Tim (January 2013). Record Collector. p. 100.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. Fiander, Matthew (January 2014). "The Servants: Hey Hey We're the Manqués / Small Time". PopMatters.
  7. Sendra, Tim (2013). "The Servants: Small Time/Hey Hey We're The Manqués". AllMusic.