Moss Side Story

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Allmusic

Moss Side Story is an album by Barry Adamson released in 1988. The album is a concept album. The music is almost completely instrumental except for occasional screams, samples and a choir. The concept is the score to a fictitious film. To achieve the effect the song titles are descriptive of a film noir plot outline. The inner sleeve came with a short story written by Dave Graney which added to the concept. This complemented outer sleeve which displays the tag line: "In a black and white world, murder brings a touch of colour...".

The NME review of the albums describes it as a "Grand filmic suite intended as the soundtrack to a "provocative film thriller set in Manchester's Moss Side" and that Moss Side Story is "one of the best soundtracks ever, the fact that it has no accompanying movie is a trifling irrelevance."

The overall style is reminiscent of the work of Angelo Badalamenti who often collaborates with the film director David Lynch.

CD versions came with three bonus tracks. Two of them - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Man With The Golden Arm" (composed by Elmer Bernstein) - are drawn from TV or film themes. "Alfred Hitchock Presents" is a reworking of the theme to the series of the same name, Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette."

Moss Side is a district near the centre of Manchester in Great Britain, where Adamson was born. The album title is a play on words and a reference to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. The title of "The Swinging Detective" plays on Dennis Potter's series of television plays The Singing Detective, while "Round Up The Usual Suspects" is a line uttered by Claude Rains in Casablanca.

Track listing

All music composed by Barry Adamson except "Everything Happens To Me" by Barry Adamson & Seamus Beaghen, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" by Charles François Gounod, and "The Man With The Golden Arm" by Elmer Bernstein

Act One - 'The Ring's The Thing'

1. "On The Wrong Side Of Relaxation" - 5:27
2. "Under Wraps" - 4:27
3. "Central Control" - 2:10
4. "Round Up The Usual Suspects" - 0:43

Act Two - 'Real Deep Cool'

5. "Sounds From The Big House" - 6:24
6. "Suck On The Honey Of Love" - 2:13
7. "Everything Happens To Me" - 2:43
8. "The Swinging Detective" - 5:45

Act Three - 'The Final Irony'

9. "Autodestruction" - 3:49
10. "Intensive Care" - 2:42
11. "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" - 4:07
12. "Free At Last" - 1:23

'For Your Ears Only'

13. "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" - 2:24
14. "Chocolate Milk Shake" - 4:24
15. "The Man With The Golden Arm" - 5:13

Accolades

Year	Publication	Country	Accolade	Rank
1989	NME	United States	"Albums of the Year"	34
"*" denotes an unordered list.

Personnel

• Barry Adamson - All other instruments, treatments, samples and sequenced
• Seamus Beaghen - Hammond organ on tracks: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15; piano on tracks: 2, 5 to 7, 11, 12, 15; rhythm guitar on tracks 2, 8; marimba track on 3
• Audrey Riley - cello on tracks: 1, 6, 11, 12
• Chris Tombling - violin on tracks: 1, 6, 11, 12
• Philippa Holland - violin on tracks: 1, 6, 12
• Sonya Slany - violin on tracks: 1, 6, 12
• Diamanda Galas - voice on "On The Wrong Side Of Relaxation"
• Gary Barnacle - saxophone on "Sounds From The Big House"
• Marcia Schofield - keyboards, bass saxophone on "The Swinging Detective"
• Joe Sax - tenor saxophone on "The Swinging Detective"
• Rowland S. Howard - guitar on "Autodestruction"
• John Doyle - percussion on tracks 11, 15
• Annie Hogan - vibraphone on track 11; strings on track 15
• Chris Pitsillides - viola on track 11
• Enrico Tomasso - trumpet on track 15
• Freedom Choir - Anita Lane, Jessamy Calkin, Katy Beale, Kid Congo Powers, Mick Harvey - on tracks 6, 12

Orchestrated by Bill McGee