| The Candidate | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1979 | |||
| Recorded | February 1979 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 40:19 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Producer |
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| Steve Harley chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Candidate | ||||
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The Candidate is the second solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley, which was released by EMI in 1979. It was produced by Harley and Jimmy Horowitz.
The Candidate was written and recorded after Harley returned to live in London at the end of the 1978, after spending almost a year living in Los Angeles. During November 1978, the UK music press reported that after returning to England at Christmas, Harley would form a new band, record a new album in February and begin touring again later in the year. [1] Speaking to the Daily Star in December 1978, Harley described the recording of his debut solo album Hobo with a Grin (1978) as "an experience", but added, "This time I'll do things very differently. I'll get the band together, then record the album in a fortnight – the way I always used to." Harley spent three weeks writing the songs for The Candidate and then recorded the album in February 1979 at Abbey Road Studios.
Speaking to Maggi Russell in early 1979, Harley revealed of the new album,
"I needed the energy that London has. West Coast musicians have done it all before, and they're very blase. Here people put their heart and soul into their music. Stuart Elliott and Jo Partridge from Cockney Rebel worked on the album with me. It's very important when you're spending 12 hours a day in the studio with a bunch of people that you get on well, that you share a sense of humour. Otherwise you all end up having a bad time. Hobo with a Grin was a difficult album, and hard to market. My new album leans back more to the early Cockney Rebel sound, a similar tempo, more commercial perhaps. I have made a record that I believe in. If the music press review it maturely I'll be glad, but that is doubtful. I'm really hoping for a good 1979, and I'm putting everything I've got into it. I'm back, and they are all going to know I am. You could spend a lot of time in this business getting affluent with success, but I'm more interested in my own sense of achievement. I hope my fans like it too." [2]
In an interview with The Evening News in October 1979, Harley spoke of his return from America and the album's creation,
"I spent almost a full year out there and did nothing except swim and sunbathe and head for some party or other at night. I had a rented house in Beverley Hills – it was costing me about £300 a week and all I did was lie by the pool and have friends to stay at the guest house. I then realised that I was getting nowhere fast and booked London's Abbey Road studios for two months. I called my old Cockney Rebel drummer Stuart Elliott and asked him to put me a band together. I came back to London, and within about three weeks I had more than enough songs for an LP. I'm pleased with The Candidate – it's the best album I've done in ages." [3]
Comparing The Candidate with Hobo with a Grin, Harley commented in his interview with The Evening News, "I looked at that LP the other day – looking is enough. I can't bear to listen to it. It's the worst thing I've ever done. I'm getting the old Cockney Rebel band together for a concert in London at the end of this month. And there won't be one song from the Hobo with a Grin LP in the set. But The Candidate is a different story altogether. After hours of deliberation, I've left out two songs from it and I hated doing that. There isn't a bad song on it." [3]
"How Good It Feels" was inspired by Yvonne Keeley, with whom Harley was in a relationship with during the 1970s. [4]
Both The Candidate and its single, "Freedom's Prisoner", were released by EMI in October 1979. Despite predictions, The Candidate was a commercial failure, but "Freedom's Prisoner" did generate some chart action, peaking at number 58 in the UK Singles Chart. [5] After the disappointing sales of The Candidate, EMI dropped Harley from their roster. The album would be Harley's last studio album until 1992's Yes You Can . [6]
In 2000, The Candidate received its first CD release through Harley's own label, Comeuppance Discs. It contained two bonus tracks, the 1982 non-album single "I Can't Even Touch You", and a live version of the 1974 Cockney Rebel song "Psychomodo". On 6 October 2003, Voiceprint Records released the album on CD together with Harley's album Yes You Can as part of the label's "2 for One Series". On 31 October 2011, The Candidate was digitally remastered and released on CD by BGO Records as a double album set with Hobo with a Grin.
Once The Candidate was recorded, Harley began planning a British and European tour for later in the year. When talking about his plans to form a new Cockney Rebel line-up, Harley told the Daily Mirror , "There will undoubtedly be some of the old group members in the line-up. Maybe Jim Cregan could join if he's not busy recording with Rod Stewart." In May 1979, Harley appeared with Peter Gabriel at one of Kate Bush's Hammersmith Odeon concerts in May 1979. It was Harley's first performance on stage in two years. [7] [8] Later in August, New Musical Express announced that Harley was currently bringing a touring band together and was in the middle of planning a British tour to follow the release of his new album. [9] However, the plans for a British tour were ultimately scrapped and instead Harley performed a one-off sold-out show at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in October, with a new line-up of Cockney Rebel as his backing band.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Smash Hits | 5/10 [10] |
| Record Mirror |   [11] |
On its release, Mike Nicholls of Record Mirror praised the album in comparison to the "poor" Hobo with a Grin. He commented, "The Candidate shows Harley once again writing interesting and intelligent songs in a musical setting both contemporary and proficient. The honesty and unpretentious ingenuity of The Candidate should re-establish [him] as an artist working independently of current trends with a style and craftsmanship that easily transcends this or any other year's models." [11] Aberdeen Press and Journal stated, "The Candidate finds Harley in fine form, vitriolic as ever." [12] Aberdeen Evening Express noted, "Steve's back with an album which puts him more in a conformist category rather than a (Cockney) rebel. But it's great all the same. Funny how he always manages to come up with at least three brilliant tracks on each album. This time it's 'Audience with the Man', 'Freedom's Prisoner' and 'How Good It Feels'. His lyrics and eloquent singing are still very much the Harley of old." [13]
Red Starr of Smash Hits commented, "Harley's never fully developed talents have scraped rock bottom in recent years. Side one here is back to his stylish, tuneful, Cockney Rebel best, but side two is simply pedestrian Americanised blandness that provokes only weariness. A mixed up album from a mixed up man but all credit for returning to the fray." He considered "Audience with the Man" and "Freedom's Prisoner" to be the album's best tracks. [10] Gary Paul of Bedfordshire on Sunday wrote, "Steve attacks the lyrics but generally leaves the impression that he would be better suited to songs which are more MOR as the backing often swamps his words." [14] Jon Hibbs of the Cambridge Evening News believed Harley displayed a "wet and placcid performance" on the album and felt he was "suffering from a bad case of lost identity". He praised "Freedom's Prisoner" for "effectively recreat[ing] the off-beat and plodding bass" of "Mr. Soft" but was less enthusiastic about the remaining material, stating, "The cockney rebel's ire is dissipated into trite hymns to 'young hearts' and 'love on the rocks' together with pedestrian reworkings of other people's ideas." [15]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | [16] |
| Q | [17] |
| Record Collector | [18] |
Dave Thompson of AllMusic retrospectively wrote, "When 'Freedom's Prisoner' hit the airwaves in fall 1979, it would have taken a lot to convince the longtime fan that the man hadn't resparked all his old glories again. It was Harley's finest 45 in half a decade. It was also a total fluke, as the accompanying album flopped onto the streets and proved itself to be little more than a clutch of substandard songs, glued together by alluring production alone. 'Audience with the Man' and 'From Here to Eternity' do bear repeated listens, but too much of The Candidate clung so lifelessly to the stylus that it was hard to believe our hopes had ever soared so high." [16]
Of the 2000 re-issue of the album, Q commented, "Despite Harley returning to Blighty, the splendid The Candidate sold so poorly that EMI dumped what four years previously had been their major act. 'Freedom's Prisoner' deserved to be an enormous hit, 'Woodchopper' rhymes 'editorial' with 'accusatorial', and the soul-baring 'One More Time' ruminates lasciviously on being taken from behind the leopardesses. Time surely for a little readjustment of history." [19] Of the 2011 BGO double CD release of the album with Hobo with a Grin, Terry Staunton of Record Collector stated, "Harley's opening brace of releases not to feature the Cockney Rebel name took him ever further away from the glam/art rock of his chart past. Hobo with a Grin takes stabs at anything and everything. The following year's offering draws from just as big a notice board, but the musical thumbtacks are rarely strong enough to hold the ideas in place. 'Audience with the Man' and 'From Here to Eternity' suggest a love for early Springsteen, but with little of Bruce's energy or articulacy, 'How Good It Feels' is passable Brit country, while 'Freedom's Prisoners' sounds like synth-rock played by jet-lagged Cossacks." [18]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Audience With the Man" | Steve Harley | 5:38 |
| 2. | "Woodchopper" | Harley | 3:44 |
| 3. | "Freedom's Prisoner" | Harley, Jimmy Horowitz | 3:47 |
| 4. | "Love on the Rocks" | Harley | 3:32 |
| 5. | "Who's Afraid?" | Harley | 4:13 |
| 6. | "One More Time" | Harley | 4:25 |
| 7. | "How Good It Feels" | Harley | 4:07 |
| 8. | "From Here to Eternity" | Harley | 5:08 |
| 9. | "Young Hearts (The Candidate)" | Harley | 5:25 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10. | "I Can't Even Touch You" | Harley | 4:00 |
| 11. | "Psychomodo (Live)" | Harley | 3:37 |
Production
Sleeve
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were an English rock band who formed in the early 1970s in London. Their music covered a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years, they have had five albums on the UK Albums Chart and twelve singles on the UK Singles Chart.
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice, known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the rock group Cockney Rebel. He had six UK hit singles with the band in the mid-1970s, including "Judy Teen", "Mr. Soft", and the number one "Make Me Smile ".
Timeless Flight is the fourth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was written and produced by Steve Harley.
Face to Face: A Live Recording is a live album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1977. It was produced by Steve Harley and Tony Clark.
Hobo with a Grin is the debut solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley, which was released by EMI in 1978. The album was produced by Harley, except for "Roll the Dice", which was produced by Michael J. Jackson. Jackson also acted as additional producer on the album.
Yes You Can is the third solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley. It was released by CTE in Europe in 1992 and by Food For Thought Records in the UK on 4 May 1993.
"Freedom's Prisoner" is a song by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley, which was released in 1979 as the only single from his second solo album The Candidate. The song, which was written and produced by Harley and Jimmy Horowitz, reached number 58 in the UK Singles Chart.
"(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released in 1976 as the second single from their fifth studio album Love's a Prima Donna. It was written and produced by Harley. The song reached No. 41 in the UK and would be the band's last charting single before their split in 1977.
The Quality of Mercy is the sixth and final studio album by English rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by Gott Discs on 3 October 2005. The album was Steve Harley's first studio album in 9 years and the first in 29 years to be released under the Cockney Rebel name. The album was produced entirely by Harley, with Jim Cregan co-producing the track "A Friend for Life". The album's title is based on the Shakespearean phrase.
"Roll the Dice" is a song by English singer-songwriter Steve Harley, which was released in 1978 as the lead single from his debut solo album Hobo with a Grin. The song was written by Harley and Jo Partridge, and produced by Michael J. Jackson.
"Black or White" is a song by British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released on 14 November 1975 as the lead single from their fourth studio album Timeless Flight (1976). The song was written and produced by Harley.
"Someone's Coming" is a song by English singer-songwriter Steve Harley, released in 1979 as the second and final single from his 1978 debut solo studio album, Hobo with a Grin. The sonsg was written by Harley and Jo Partridge, and was produced by Harley.
"White, White Dove" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released in 1976 as the second and final single from their fourth studio album Timeless Flight. The song was written and produced by Harley.
The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology is a remastered three-disc box-set anthology by Steve Harley, released in 2006. The anthology features material from Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and Harley's solo career. It covers all of Harley's albums, spanning over 33 years, from 1973's The Human Menagerie to 2005's The Quality of Mercy. The anthology was released by EMI Music UK. It was released on CD in the UK only. Today, the physical CD release is out-of-print.
"(Love) Compared with You" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released in 1977 as the third and final single from the band's fifth studio album, Love's a Prima Donna (1976). Released as a single in America only, the song was written and produced by Harley.
More Than Somewhat – The Very Best of Steve Harley is a compilation album by Steve Harley, which was released by EMI in 1998. It features sixteen tracks recorded by Cockney Rebel, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and Harley as a solo artist, spanning from Cockney Rebel's 1973 debut album The Human Menagerie to Harley's 1996 solo album Poetic Justice. At least one song from each studio album is included, with the exception of Harley's 1979 album The Candidate.
"Judy Teen" is a song by the British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. It was released as a non-album single in 1974, and became the band's first UK hit, after their debut single, "Sebastian", was only a hit in continental Europe. "Judy Teen" was written by Harley, and produced by Harley and Alan Parsons.
"The Best Years of Our Lives" is a song by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, released in 1975 as the title track from the band's third studio album The Best Years of Our Lives. In 1977, a live version of the song was released as a single from the album Face to Face: A Live Recording.
The Best of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel is a compilation album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released in 1980. It features material from the original line-up of Cockney Rebel, the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel line-up, and two tracks from Harley's solo career.
Beam of Light is the second studio album from Dutch singer Patricia Paay, which was released by EMI in 1975.
