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Lamb (album)

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Lamb
Studio album by
Released30 September 1996 (1996-09-30)
Studio
Genre
Length65:14
LabelFontana
ProducerLamb
Lamb chronology
Lamb
(1996)
Fear of Fours
(1999)
Singles from Lamb
  1. "Cotton Wool"
    Released: 1 January 1996[1]
  2. "Gold"
    Released: 25 March 1996[2]
  3. "God Bless"
    Released: 28 October 1996[3]
  4. "Górecki"
    Released: 17 March 1997[4]

Lamb is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo Lamb. It was released on 30 September 1996 by Fontana Records.[5]

In the United States, Lamb was released in 1997 and distributed by Fontana's parent label Mercury Records.[6][7] The album was reissued on LP by Music on Vinyl on 10 March 2014.[8]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Almost Cool7.5/10[10]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[11]
The Guardian[12]
Launch60/100[13]
Muzik4.5/5[14]
NME6/10[15]
Q[16]
Rolling Stone[17]
Rolling Stone Australia[18]

In Melody Maker, Sharon O'Connell lauded Lamb's fusion of the "kinetics" of drum and bass with "the sensuality of soul" on Lamb, describing the album's musical style as a "sumptuously organic" take on drum and bass incorporating varied instrumentation and the "gorgeous, haunted voice" of lead singer Lou Rhodes.[19] Martin James of Muzik, noting Rhodes's folk music lineage and her bandmate Andy Barlow's roots in "the breakbeat tradition", highlighted the duo's juxtaposition of "genres, sonics and emotions" throughout Lamb.[14] The Guardian's Dan Glaister credited Rhodes's "fragile vocals" for giving the music "an original context",[12] while Matt Diehl commented in Entertainment Weekly that she "shows how emotionally satisfying techno can be."[11] Dele Fadele was more lukewarm towards the record in NME, finding it derivative of "Portishead's version of trip-hop" while conceding that Lamb have a "distinct identity that sneaks out through the pores of the whole".[15]

AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Lamb in retrospect as "one of the more hypnotic byproducts of trip-hop", observing a "classy, detached, and cool" approach to the genre distinguishing the album "from the avant-garde sensibilities of Tricky and the haunted romanticism of Portishead, or even the pop leanings of Sneaker Pimps and the soul-inflected grooves of Morcheeba."[9] In 2021, Slant Magazine listed Lamb as the tenth-best trip hop album of all time, with staff writer Sal Cinquemani calling it "nervy, innovative, and complex—boasting shifting time signatures, stuttering machine-gun beats, and eccentric vocal turns by singer Lou Rhodes, who stretches her uniquely colorful voice over producer Andy Barlow's tight, jazzy arrangements."[20]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes

No.TitleLength
1."Lusty"4:09
2."God Bless"5:54
3."Cotton Wool"5:07
4."Trans Fatty Acid"7:37
5."Zero"5:31
6."Merge"5:44
7."Gold"5:40
8."Closer"3:51
9."Górecki"6:30
10."Feela"6:44
11."Cotton Wool" (Fila Brazillia mix)8:27
Total length:65:14
2014 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."Trans Fatty Acid" (Kruder & Dorfmeister remix)9:00
13."Górecki" (Global Communication mix)9:46
Total length:84:00

Notes

  • On the CD edition of the album, "Cotton Wool" (Fila Brazillia mix) is a hidden track that begins two minutes after the end of "Feela". On the LP edition, it is included in the printed track listing.

Personnel

[edit]

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[21]

Lamb

Additional musicians

Production

Design

  • Karen Lamond – photography
  • Rick Myers – design

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1996) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[22] 109
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[23] 7

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 23 December 1995. p. 32. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  2. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 23 March 1996. p. 31. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  3. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 26 October 1996. p. 29. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  4. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 15 March 1997. p. 28. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  5. ^ "New Releases: Albums" (PDF). Music Week. 28 September 1996. pp. 56–57. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  6. ^ Darling, Cary (21 July 1997). "Lamb's debut has a leg to stand on". The Record.
  7. ^ Lamb (liner notes). Lamb. Mercury Records / Fontana Records. 1997. 314 532 968-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  8. ^ "Lamb – Lamb". Music on Vinyl. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  9. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Lamb – Lamb". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
  10. ^ Coleman, Aaron. "Lamb – Self-Titled". Almost Cool. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  11. ^ a b Diehl, Matt (16 May 1997). "Lamb". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  12. ^ a b Glaister, Dan (4 October 1996). "Lamb: Lamb (Fontana Records)". The Guardian.
  13. ^ Gulla, Bob. "Lamb". Launch. Archived from the original on 2 June 2002. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  14. ^ a b James, Martin (November 1996). "Lamb: Lamb" (PDF). Muzik. No. 18. p. 127. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  15. ^ a b Fadele, Dele (12 October 1996). "Lamb: Lamb". NME.
  16. ^ Aston, Martin (December 1996). "Lamb: Lamb". Q. No. 123. pp. 136–138.
  17. ^ Micallef, Ken (6 March 1997). "Lamb: Lamb". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 29 March 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  18. ^ Zoric, Lauren. "Lamb – Lamb (Fontana/Mercury)". Rolling Stone Australia. Archived from the original on 1 December 1998. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  19. ^ O'Connell, Sharon (7 September 1996). "Drum'n'Baaas". Melody Maker. p. 42.
  20. ^ "The 20 Best Trip-Hop Albums of All Time". Slant Magazine. 23 April 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  21. ^ Lamb (liner notes). Lamb. Fontana Records. 1996. 532 968-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  22. ^ "Chart Log UK: DJ Steve L. – LZ Love". Zobbel.de. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  23. ^ "Dance Albums" (PDF). Music Week. 12 October 1996. p. 21. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
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