After Murder Park
| After Murder Park | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 March 1996 | |||
| Studio | Abbey Road, London | |||
| Genre | Baroque pop,[1] alternative rock, indie pop | |||
| Length | 39:17 | |||
| Label | Hut | |||
| Producer | Steve Albini[2] | |||
| The Auteurs chronology | ||||
| ||||
After Murder Park is the third album by British rock band the Auteurs, released in March 1996. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and produced by Steve Albini. In 2014, British independent record label 3 Loop Music re-released the album as a 2CD Expanded Edition which included b-sides, alternate versions, radio session tracks and live recordings.
Recording[edit]
After Murder Park was recorded in less than two weeks at Abbey Road Studios, following a year during which front man Luke Haines had spent most of his time in a wheelchair after jumping off a wall.[3][4]
Haines had wanted to hire Steve Albini as a producer to achieve a rawer, darker sound than the Auteurs' previous album Now I'm a Cowboy, and to his surprise, the record label agreed. Recording commenced at the end of March 1995, and after only two weeks, the album was recorded and mixed. However, Hut decided to hold back the release for almost a year.[4]
Release and reception[edit]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Alternative Rock | 6/10[6] |
| Drowned in Sound | 8/10[7] |
| Wall of Sound | 78/100[8] |
The Back with the Killer EP was issued in January 1996. Following the Kid's Issue EP in May 1996, Haines announced the band's break-up.[9]
The album received mostly decent reviews, entered the British charts at number 53 and sold around 58,000 copies worldwide. During the heyday of Britpop, this was nonetheless seen as a commercial failure.[4] Author Dave Thompson wrote in his book Alternative Rock (2000) that "under Steve Albini's roughshod tutelage, The Auteurs emerge all but unrecognizable – aggressive and angular, but with sufficient melodicism to suggest that whatever else they'd been doing since their last album, ignoring the Beatles wasn't part of it. Ignoring everyone else, however, certainly was."[6] Trouser Press has called the album a "misanthropic mini-masterpiece."[2]
Track listing[edit]
All songs written by Luke Haines.[10]
- Original CD/LP (CDHUT33/HUTLP33)
- "Light Aircraft on Fire" – 2:17
- "Child Brides" – 4:26
- "Land Lovers" – 2:31
- "New Brat in Town" – 3:55
- "Everything You Say Will Destroy You" – 2:42
- "Unsolved Child Murder" – 2:08
- "Married to a Lazy Lover" – 3:55
- "Buddha" – 2:52
- "Tombstone" – 3:59
- "Fear of Flying" – 4:41
- "Dead Sea Navigators" – 3:47
- "After Murder Park" – 2:00
Personnel[edit]
Personnel per booklet.[10]
- The Auteurs
- Luke Haines – guitar, Harmonium, vocals
- James Banbury – cello, Hammond, korg
- Alice Readman – bass guitar
- Barny C. Rockford – drums
- Additional musicians
- Andy Bush – French horn
- Marcus Broome – violin
- Eleanor Gilchrist – violin
- Theresa Whipple – viola
- Abigail Trundle – cello
- Bern Davis – cello
- Production
- Steve Albini – recording
- Paul Hicks – assistant engineer
- Stefan De Batselier – inner photo
- Chris Cunningham – treated
See also[edit]
- Baader Meinhof – Haines' next project
References[edit]
Citations
- ^ Kravitz, Kayley (23 July 2013). "Get to Know the Auteurs". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ a b "TrouserPress.com :: Auteurs". www.trouserpress.com.
- ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. p. 66. ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
- ^ a b c Joe Banks (8 March 2021). "The Auteurs Sing Uber Hate: After Murder Park At 25". The Quietus.
- ^ After Murder Park at AllMusic
- ^ a b Thompson 2000, p. 163
- ^ Tudor, Alexander (14 January 2009). "The Auteurs and their part in Britpop's downfall". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ Gulla, Bob. "Review: After Murder Park". Wall of Sound. Archived from the original on 15 April 2001. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ Thompson 2000, p. 162
- ^ a b After Murder Park (Booklet). The Auteurs. Hut Recordings. 1996. CDHUT 33/7243 8 41317 2 2.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
Sources
- Thompson, Dave (2000). Alternative Rock. Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion. San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-607-6.
External links[edit]
- After Murder Park at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
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