''Elegant Slumming'' is the second album by the British
dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
band
M People
M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...
. It was released on 4 October 1993 charting and peaking at number 2 on the UK Album Chart and spent 87 weeks in the Top 75. It re-entered the chart three times in October 1996 and March and September 1997. Its overall sales stand at 759,000 as of September 2020.
The four singles released from the album were all UK Top 10 hits: "
One Night in Heaven" (#6) and "
Moving on Up" (#2), as well as a cover version of the
Dennis Edwards
Dennis Edwards Jr. (February 3, 1943 – February 1, 2018) was an American soul and R&B singer who was best known as the frontman in The Temptations for Motown Records. Edwards joined the Temptations in 1968, replacing David Ruffin and sang w ...
and
Siedah Garrett
Deborah Christine "Siedah" Garrett (born June 24, 1960) is an American singer and songwriter who has written songs and performed backing vocals for many recording artists in the music industry, such as Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Brand ...
song "
Don't Look Any Further
"Don't Look Any Further" is a song by American singer Dennis Edwards featuring American singer-songwriter Siedah Garrett, released in April 1984 by Motown from the singer's Don't Look Any Further (album), debut album by the same name (1984). Th ...
", which reached No. 9 in the UK. A fourth hit, "
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
", reached No. 5 in the same chart.
The US version was released in 1994 in a separate deal on the
Epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale
Epic(s) ...
label, and replaces 3 tracks with 3 hits from their debut album ''
Northern Soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British Mod (subculture), mod scene, based on a particular style of African American music, Black American ...
'', which did not have a US release. The album was well received, and "
One Night in Heaven" and "
Moving on Up" were ''Billboard'' No. 1 hits on
Hot Dance Club Play
The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...
.
The original British album won the 1994 UK
Mercury Music Prize
The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...
.
Critical reception
The album was met with positive reviews from most music critics. ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine complimented it as "a sterling collection that is a delicious blend of cutting-edge club rhythms and classic
pop/soul hooks." They praised
Heather Small
Heather Marguerita Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul music, soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud (Heather Small album), Proud'', was released in 2000. Her second and ...
as "a formidable front woman who rises above the pack of iron-lunged divas with a well-rounded range and a regal grace. She exudes the ingredients necessary for major stardom on dandy ditties like '
One Night in Heaven', '
Colour My Life', and '
Moving on Up'".
Alan Jones from ''
Music Week
''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future.
History
Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...
'' named the album Pick of the Week, remarking that Small is "in commanding vocal form", while the band provide her "with infectious and real (no sampled) pads over which to strut her impressive stuff."
[
Iestyn George from '']NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'' wrote, "Everything, from the artwork onwards, is presented with flawless precision, blending Italia-house with breakbeats and subtle touches of latin percussion. Pickering's encyclopedic knowledge of music and priceless apprenticeship at the Hacienda are matched by Heather Small's mother-of-all vocals."Smash Hits
''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...
'' named it Best New Album, adding, "If 'One Night in Heaven' had you wiggling then this album's your baby. 'Moving on Up' is a funky dancefloor filler and 'La Vida Loca' could make your cucumber rumba."Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles
* Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
'' said, "Don't wrinkle your nose in that unbecoming fashion. That stench to which you're so unused is called class and these U.K. clubland monarchs just reek of it."[ Music critic of '']The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'', Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
gave the album an A.
Track listing
All songs written by Mike Pickering
Mike Pickering is an English musician, DJ, songwriter, A&R Executive from Manchester, UK.
Career
Pickering was a DJ at The Haçienda's Nude and Hot nights, and later Shine. He worked for Factory Records, where he signed Happy Mondays, To Hell ...
and Paul Heard except where noted.
US CD and European cassette version
Note
The US vinyl edition contains eight tracks, omitting "Little Packet" & "Love Is in My Soul". In addition to this, "Colour My Life" is placed as track eight.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
1993 albums
M People albums
Mercury Prize–winning albums