Bigger Than America
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''Bigger Than America'' is the sixth
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by the English
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...
band
Heaven 17 Heaven 17 are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of founding Human League members Martyn Ware (keyboards, drum machine, vocals) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) with voc ...
. It was originally released in September 1996, on the label Eye of the Storm, eight years after their previous album, '' Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho''. The album peaked at number one on Germany Alphabeat Redaktionscharts' Rock/Pop/Alternative Charts in November 1996, but did not chart in the UK. It was listed as number 6 on the online music magazine
Addicted to Noise ''Addicted to Noise'' (ATN) was an American online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by ex-''Rolling Stone'' associate editor and senior writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it publish ...
's Writers Poll. In an interview with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' in 2010, Ware recalled: "This went under the radar to the extent that hardly anybody in this country knew about it; we did do an album in '95 called ''Bigger Than America'', which was our attempt to re-engage early analogue synths and create an album based on that. It just got lost in the big Warner Brothers machine."


Critical reception

Upon its release, Caroline Sullivan of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' commented: "Heaven 17 have hardly changed ndthings are much the same - just less melodic. Marsh and Ware still produce plinky, one-tempo backbeats, ndGregory's lyrics are disillusioned, even morose. "We Blame Love" has the closest thing to a tune, which brings us to the crux of the matter - their status as godfathers of techno is unchallenged, but these songs are hollow and too samey." Robert Semrow of ''
Keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...
'' wrote: " eaven 17were outstanding before, and have only improved with time. Each song is solid and very dancefloor-friendly. ''Bigger Than America'' is similar to their previous sound, with pads and dance grooves providing a backdrop for Gregory's unmistakable strong vocals. Lots of movement, lots of changes, and lots to enjoy." Howard Cohen of
Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. It was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, allowing the latter to become the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States at the time ...
summarised: "Erasure-like Europop cuts 'Freak!' and 'Another Big Idea' are danceable enough, and there's a throbbing Giorgio Moroder dance remix. But this is largely tuneless, boring stuff. Which explains why few missed Heaven 17 in the first place."


Track listing

# "Dive" – 4:30 # " Designing Heaven" – 5:15 # "We Blame Love" – 4:49 # "Another Big Idea" – 4:57 # "Freak!" – 4:09 # "Bigger Than America" – 4:00 # "Unreal Everything" – 4:10 # "The Big Dipper" – 4:57 # "Do I Believe?" – 4:57 # "Resurrection Man" – 4:06 # "Maybe Forever" – 4:42 # "An Electronic Prayer" – 4:06 # "Designing Heaven – (Mies Van Der Rohe mix)" + # "Designing Heaven (Den Hemmel Designen) – (Gregorio remix)" + Tracks marked with "+" are bonus tracks added to the other version of the CD album.


Personnel

*
Glenn Gregory Glenn Peter Gregory (born 16 May 1958) is a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and lead singer of the new wave and synth-pop b ...
*
Ian Craig Marsh Ian Craig Marsh (born 11 November 1956) is an English musician and composer. He was a founding member of the electronic band the Human League, writing and playing on their first two albums and several singles, until leaving in 1980 to form th ...
*
Martyn Ware Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware co-wrote hit songs such as " Being Boiled" and "Temptation". Wa ...


Production

* Ray Smith – cover art


Charts


Weekly charts


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bigger Than America 1996 albums Cleopatra Records albums Heaven 17 albums