This Time It's Personal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 14 October 2016 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll | |||
Length | 33:51 | |||
Label | Sony | |||
Producer | Hugh Cornwell | |||
John Cooper Clarke chronology | ||||
| ||||
Hugh Cornwell chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from This Time It's Personal | ||||
|
This Time It's Personal is a covers album by the English performance poet John Cooper Clarke,and the former vocalist and guitarist of the Stranglers,Hugh Cornwell. It was released on 14 October 2016 [1] by Sony. The album features songs that were important to Clarke and Cornwell in their youth,and includes tracks by artists and songwriters such as Ricky Nelson,Ritchie Valens,Conway Twitty,Lieber and Stoller and Jimmy Webb. [2] This Time It's Personal marks Clarke's singing debut on an album. [3] It was Clarke's first album release since 1982's Zip Style Method .
The album was conceived by Cornwell,when drunk and listening to "MacArthur Park",he wondered what the song would sound like if Clarke had sung it. Having spent dinner with Clarke weeks before,he rang him up and asked him if he was interested. Clarke was receptive to the idea,and after covering "MacArthur Park",the two decided to make an album of songs from their youth,with Clarke on vocals and Cornwell on guitars. [4] [1] "This is the music Hugh and I listened to at a similar age,the music we heard on radio growing up," Clarke said in 2017. "Not everyone had a record player,so radio was much more important then and we wanted to capture that." [5]
To support the album's release,the duo undertook a small UK tour during November and December 2016. [6]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
The Arts Desk | [7] |
The Music | [8] |
The Arts Desk called the album "great 20th-century pop at its shortest,sweetest,and lingering best ... Warm,rich and full of heart." Clarke's delivery,they felt,"works perfectly against the skeletal,echoey guitars of Cornwell," adding,"there's a sense of austere clarity and simplicity,as opposed to indulgence or nostalgia." [7] The Music wrote,"Doctor's unashamedly Manchester nasal tones,which can be surprisingly melodic at times,are delivered against Cornwall's dense guitar noise. The results can be almost bebop jazz –or karaoke night at The Salford Workers Club. The kind-of-sweet ("It's Only Make Believe") collides with the dryly comical ("Love Potion No 9"). Then there's a sprawling ramble at "MacArthur Park",which is either towering genius or towering folly –but,like the whole project,probably somewhere between the two." [8]
The Louder Than War website called it "a modern masterpiece" and "one of the more remarkable albums in recent history." They felt that the album shows "an impressive ability" to assemble these songs and "mastermind an album of modern interpretations." Cornwell's production skills,they wrote,"demonstrate a rare talent and are all the more impressive for the challenge of the project." Louder Than War said of Clarke's vocal performance:"He brings sensitivity and affection for the songs he is singing,and his distinctive vocals ... add the vital touch of originality ... the fact that [the songs] are well-known means it is not so easy to take liberties with them,but the tracks chosen are respectfully,even lovingly,delivered and this is clearly a labour of love for both men." [3]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "It's Only Make Believe" | Conway Twitty, Jack Nance | Conway Twitty | 2:59 |
2. | "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" | John Turner Layton Jr., Henry Creamer | from the Broadway production Spice of 1922; later recorded by the Peerless Quartet, Blossom Seeley and Paul Whiteman [9] | 2:25 |
3. | "Spanish Harlem" | Jerry Leiber, Phil Spector | Ben E. King | 3:02 |
4. | "Johnny Remember Me" | Geoff Goddard | John Leyton | 3:17 |
5. | "MacArthur Park" | Jimmy Webb | Richard Harris | 6:20 |
6. | "She's a Woman" | Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller | Christine Kittrell | 2:36 |
7. | "Donna" | Ritchie Valens | Ritchie Valens | 3:59 |
8. | "Jezebel" | Wayne Shanklin | Frankie Laine | 3:39 |
9. | "Love Potion No. 9" | Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller | The Clovers | 2:57 |
10. | "Sweeter Than You" | Baker Knight | Ricky Nelson | 4:37 |
Total length: | 33:51 |
Additional musicians
Technical
The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have originated in the UK punk scene.
The Raven is the fourth studio album by English new wave band the Stranglers, released on 15 September 1979, through record label United Artists.
Black and White is the third studio album by English new wave band the Stranglers. It was released on 12 May 1978, through record label United Artists in most of the world and A&M in America.
Live is the first live album by the Stranglers, released in February 1979 by United Artists. It contains tracks recorded at The Roundhouse in June and November 1977 and at Battersea Park in September 1978.
The Gospel According to the Meninblack is the fifth album by English rock band the Stranglers, an esoteric concept album released in 1981 on the Liberty label. The album deals with conspiratorial ideas surrounding alien visitations to Earth, the sinister governmental men in black, and the involvement of these elements in well-known biblical narratives. This was not the first time the Stranglers had used this concept; "Meninblack" on the earlier The Raven album and subsequent 1980 single-release "Who Wants the World?" had also explored it.
Nosferatu is an album by Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers and Robert Williams, drummer in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. It was released on 16 November 1979 by United Artists.
Hugh Alan Cornwell is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the Stranglers, Cornwell has gone on to record a further ten solo studio albums and continues to record and perform live.
Dreamtime is the ninth studio album by the Stranglers, released in 1986 by Epic Records. The title track was inspired by a belief of the aboriginal peoples of Australia called Dreamtime.
10 is the tenth studio album by English rock band the Stranglers, released in March 1990 by Epic Records. It was the last to feature guitarist/lead singer Hugh Cornwell. 10 peaked at No. 15 and spent four weeks in the UK Albums Chart.
Friday the Thirteenth is a live album by the English rock band the Stranglers, released in 1997 by Eagle Records.
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning is a live album by the Stranglers, released in 1993 by Castle Communications.
The Stranglers and Friends: Live in Concert is a live album by English rock band the Stranglers, released in 1995 by Receiver Records. In 2002, the album was re-released on the Castle Music label, digitally remastered from the original master tapes with new artwork and sleeve notes.
Beyond Elysian Fields is the sixth studio album by Hugh Cornwell, released by Invisible Hands Music on 4 October 2004 in the UK, with a worldwide release in 2005. It was produced by Tony Visconti and Danny Kadar.
David Paul Greenfield was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band The Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years until his death.
Peaches: The Very Best of The Stranglers is a compilation album by The Stranglers, released in 2002 by EMI. It reached No. 21 in the UK Albums Chart in June 2002.
The following is a comprehensive discography of the Stranglers, an English rock band.
Wolf is Hugh Cornwell's first solo album, released in June 1988 on Virgin Records and produced by Cornwell and Ian Ritchie, with additional production on two tracks by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The other musicians involved included drummers Graham Broad and Manny Elias, keyboardists Jools Holland and Simon Clark, brass players Don Weller, Pete Thoms, Steve Dawson and Alex Gifford, singer Haywoode, and guitarist Gus Isadore.
People, Places, Pieces is a 3-CD live album by English musician Hugh Cornwell, released through Invisible Hands Music in October 2006. It was recorded at the London Carling Academy over three nights between 12 and 14 April 2005. Containing 45 tracks, the set spans the whole of Cornwell's career and includes tracks from his time with the Stranglers and from the majority of his solo albums. It was available by mail-order only, and accompanied by a 12-track "highlights" CD entitled Dirty Dozen, which was available in stores.
Monster is the ninth studio album by English musician Hugh Cornwell, released on 5 October 2018 by Sony Music. It is a concept album, which celebrates the lives of 10 influential, and in some cases controversial, figures from the 20th century, including Lou Reed, Evel Knievel and Benito Mussolini. The release comes with a companion disc named Restoration, which features re-recorded acoustic versions of songs from Cornwell's former band the Stranglers.
Totem and Taboo is the eighth studio album by English musician Hugh Cornwell, released in 2012. It was funded via PledgeMusic and initially self-released in June 2012 on Cornwell's own HIS Records, before coming out in September 2012 through Cadiz Music in the UK, and in June 2013 through Red River Entertainment in North America. The album was recorded in Chicago with recording engineer Steve Albini.