The Remote Part
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
The Remote Part is the third album by Scottish rock band Idlewild, released on 15 July 2002. It received broadly positive reviews[2] and is Idlewild's most commercially successful album to date, entering the UK album chart at Number 3 and selling 100,000 copies within a month. It is currently certified as Gold within the U.K.[3] Vocalist Roddy Woomble notes that the band felt like "a collective of songwriters"[4] during the writing process. Woomble credits guitarist Rod Jones with influencing the album's musical direction, stating that Jones "really started to take steps forward in terms of his guitar playing, and also his harmonies. I think he pulled the record in a more poppy way, as that’s the sort of musician he is – he loves bands like Teenage Fanclub and Yes and ELO and The Police."[4]
Touring guitarists Jeremy Mills and Allan Stewart[5] stayed with the band during recording, and appear on the final track "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction". They are also credited with writing "I Never Wanted" alongside the band. Following the album's release, Stewart later joined Idlewild as a permanent member, while bassist Bob Fairfoull left the band. At the end of "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction", Scottish poet Edwin Morgan recites a poem entitled Scottish Fiction, which was written especially for the album. The album was performed in full on 19 December 2008 at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow as part of a series of retrospective shows.
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [6] |
| Austin Chronicle | [1] |
| Drawer B |   [citation needed] |
| Dot Music | [citation needed] |
| Magnet | [7] |
| Mojo | [8] |
| NME | [9] |
| Pitchfork Media |  [10] |
| Rolling Stone | [11] |
The album received positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 83, based on 20 reviews.[2]
Track listing
All songs by Idlewild unless otherwise stated.
- "You Held the World in Your Arms" – 3:21
- "A Modern Way of Letting Go" – 2:23
- "American English" – 4:34
- "I Never Wanted" (Idlewild/Jeremy Mills/Allan Stewart) – 3:55
- "(I Am) What I Am Not" – 2:43
- "Live in a Hiding Place" – 3:16
- "Out of Routine" – 3:09
- "Century After Century" – 4:01
- "Tell Me Ten Words" – 3:46
- "Stay the Same" – 3:11
- "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction" (Idlewild/Edwin Morgan) – 3:55
Personnel
- Roddy Woomble - vocals, artwork concept
- Rod Jones - guitar, vocals
- Bob Fairfoull - bass
- Colin Newton - drums
- Jeremy Mills - piano ("In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction")
- Allan Stewart - guitar ("In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction")
- Edwin Morgan - writer ("In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction")
- Dave Eringa - producer, mixing
- Guy Massey - engineer, producer ("Live in a Hiding Place")
- Stephen Street - producer ("Tell Me Ten Words")
- Cenzo Townsend - engineer ("Tell Me Ten Words")
- Sally Herbert - string arrangement ("You Held the World in Your Arms")
- Traffic - art direction/design
- Danny Clinch - band photography
- Howie Weinberg - Mastering
- Dan Grech-Marguerat - Mixing Assistant, Mixing Assistant, Assistant
Song appearances
- "You Held the World in Your Arms" was used in the soundtrack to video game FIFA 2003
- "A Modern Way of Letting Go" was in the video game Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition.
References
- ^ a b c http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A149241
- ^ a b Idlewild: The Remote Part (2003): Reviews
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ a b Drowned in Sound - Features - ReDiScover: Idlewild
- ^ isnakebite.com > interviews > idlewild
- ^ MacKenzie Wilson (2002-07-15). "The Remote Part - Idlewild". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
- ^ Magnet #58, p. 91
- ^ Mojo August 2002, p. 112
- ^ "NME Album Reviews - Idlewild : The Remote Part". Nme.Com. 2002-07-04. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
- ^ [2] Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Rolling Stone Music | Album Reviews". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 2012-03-07.