Man @ Work
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
Man @ Work is the eighth solo album by Scottish Australian singer Colin Hay, released by Compass Records in July 2003.[1]
The album is essentially a career-retrospective for Hay: he is best known as the lead singer for the 1980s Australian pop band Men at Work, and roughly half of the songs on this album are Hay's solo studio renderings of works from the Men at Work catalog, while several others are remixes or re-recordings of material from his solo albums. Some songs are almost identical to the original recordings (e.g. "Be Good Johnny") while others are complete reinterpretations (e.g. acoustic versions of "Down Under" and "Who Can It Be Now?").
The album concludes with a version of "Down Under" recorded with the group Wild Clams.
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [2] |
Allmusic gave a mostly negative review of the album, saying of the Men at Work covers that "While such acoustic Men at Work tracks as "Overkill" and "Who Can It Be Now?" are quite charming and worth hearing, the pointless re-recordings of "Be Good Johnny" and "It's a Mistake" (which are almost identical to the originals) are pretty darn pointless." They summarized his solo reworkings as "worth hearing, but of course, they're not up to the high Business as Usual standards." They concluded that the album "will only be of interest to the hardest of hardcore Colin Hay fan."[2]
The Associated Press wrote that, "In the best possible sense, Man @ Work is like Colin Hay's cover version of his own greatest hits album."[citation needed]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Colin Hay,[3] except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful World" (alternate mix) | 3:39 |
| 2. | "Down Under" (acoustic version) (C. Hay, Ron Strykert) | 3:33 |
| 3. | "Overkill" (acoustic version) | 3:47 |
| 4. | "Storm in My Heart" | 3:09 |
| 5. | "Looking for Jack" (C. Hay, J. Alsop) | 4:07 |
| 6. | "Don't Be Afraid" | 2:56 |
| 7. | "It's a Mistake" | 4:46 |
| 8. | "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" (C. Hay, T. Mooney) | 5:45 |
| 9. | "To Have and to Hold" | 3:29 |
| 10. | "Who Can It Be Now?" (acoustic version) | 3:24 |
| 11. | "Be Good Johnny" (C. Hay, Greg Ham) | 3:35 |
| 12. | "Love is Innocent" | 4:43 |
| 13. | "Down Under" (new recording) (C. Hay, R. Strykert) | 4:48 |
Personnel
- Colin Hay - acoustic guitar, bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Jeff Babko - organ, piano, keyboards
- Luis Conte - percussion
- Johnathon Dresel - drums
- Jimmy Earl — bass
- Bill Esparza - saxophone
- Chad Fischer — percussion, drums, recorder, background vocals
- Mario Gonzales - trumpet
- Greg Ham - flute
- Andrés "Dez" Hernandez — turntables
- Eric Jorgensen - trombone
- Cecilia Noël — piano, background vocals, vocal harmony
- Lee Thornburg — trumpet
- Guillermo Vadala — bass
- Lyle Workman — guitar
- Toshi Yanagi — guitar
Production
- Producer: Colin Hay
- Engineers: Dave Dale, Juan Pablo Fallucca, Chad Fischer, Colin Hay, Edwardo McKinley
- Mixing: Juan Pablo Fallucca, Chad Fischer, Colin Hay, Edwardo McKinley
- Loops: Chad Fischer
- Drum programming: Chad Fischer
- Design: Griffin Norman
- Photography: Gregory Cannon, Cecilia Noël
- Cover painting: Norval
References
- ^ Breznican, Anthony (4 January 2004). "Colin Hay to Play One-Man Theater Show". The Associated Press. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
- ^ a b Prato, Greg. Man @ Work at AllMusic
- ^ "Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 27 January 2012. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. BEAUTIFUL WORLD