''Whirlpool'' is the debut studio album by English shoegaze band Chapterhouse. It was released on 29 April 1991 by

Dedicated Records Dedicated was a British independent record label that released music between 1990 and 1998 by Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Global Communication, Beth Orton (in the U.S.), Chapterhouse (band), Chapterhouse, Cranes (band), Cranes and others. It was ...

Release

''Whirlpool'' was released on 29 April 1991 by

. It spent three weeks on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, peaking at number 23. "Pearl" was issued as the album's only single on 18 March 1991, reaching number 67 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. Cherry Red Records reissued ''Whirlpool'' in 2006 with several bonus tracks taken from Chapterhouse's EPs ''

Freefall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on i ...

'' and '' Sunburst'', both released in 1990, and the "Pearl" single. It also included, for the first time, printed lyrics for all of the album's songs. The initial and subsequent runs of the Cherry Red CD reissue were pressed using a lossy master source for tracks 1 to 9, 13 and 14. The corrected version has the reference TC2159 printed on the inner CD ring. As of 2015, this was still the case, with Cherry Red reported as continuing to send out versions of the CD – now bearing the reference CDMRED304V2 – which were sourced from the lossy master, rather than the DAT, for tracks 1 to 9, 13 and 14.

Critical reception

In 2016, ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' ranked ''Whirlpool'' at number 17 on its list of the 50 best shoegaze albums of all time.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Chapterhouse * Russell Barrett – bass * Ashley Bates – drums * Stephen Patman – vocals, guitar * Simon Rowe – guitar * Andrew Sherriff – vocals, guitar Additional musicians *

Rachel Goswell Rachel Ann Goswell (born 16 May 1971) is an English singer-songwriter and musician who rose to prominence as vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band Slowdive, which formed in 1989. Goswell, along with Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and fo ...

– backing vocals on "Pearl" Production * Paul Adkins –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

* Chapterhouse –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* John Fryer – mixing *

Robin Guthrie Robin Andrew Guthrie (born 4 January 1962) is a Scottish musician, songwriter, composer, record producer and audio engineer, best known as the co-founder of the alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. During his career Guthrie has performed ...

– production on "Something More", additional mixing and production on "Autosleeper" *

Stephen Hague Stephen Hague (born 1960) is an American record producer most active with various British acts since the 1980s. Early life Hague was born in Portland, Maine in 1960. Early career Hague started his musical career in the mid-1970s as a session ...

– additional mixing and production on "Falling Down" *

Ralph Jezzard Ralph Jezzard (born 16 January 1966 in South London) is a British music producer based in London, England. History Jezzard started playing in bands at the age of 14 including Case. At 16 he started working at Wickham Studios in South London ...

– production on "Breather" and "Pearl" * Jim Warren – recording Design * Albert Tupelo – design

Charts

References

External links

* 1991 debut albums Chapterhouse albums Albums produced by Robin Guthrie Albums produced by Stephen Hague Dedicated Records albums {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub