''Pinky Blue'' is the second album by the Scottish new wave band

Altered Images Altered Images is a Scottish New wave music, new wave/post-punk band who found success in the early 1980s. Fronted by singer Clare Grogan, the group branched into mainstream pop music, having six UK top-40 hit singles and three top-30 albums ...

. It was released in May 1982 and featured the hit singles " I Could Be Happy", "See Those Eyes" and "Pinky Blue".

Overview

The album reached No. 12 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, while the singles charted well, with " I Could Be Happy" peaking at No. 7, "See Those Eyes" at No. 11 and "Pinky Blue" at No. 35 on the official singles chart. This was to be their highest placed album in the charts and was certified

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

by the BPI for sales of over 60,000 copies. The style of the album moved further away from their

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

roots and further into pop music, aided by their decision to include a cover version of

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time. He has written and ...

's MOR hit "

Song Sung Blue "Song Sung Blue" is a 1972 hit song written and recorded by Neil Diamond, inspired by the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto #21. It was released on Diamond's album '' Moods'', and later appeared on many of Diamond's live and compilatio ...

", which was released as a fourth single only in Holland. The album was produced by

Martin Rushent Martin Charles Rushent (11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011) was an English record producer, best known for his work with the Human League, the Stranglers and Buzzcocks. Early life Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His fathe ...

, who had already produced the band's successful 1981 hit single " Happy Birthday", though this would be their last project with him. The album was re-issued on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

twice in the 1990s as straight album reissues, then by Edsel Records in 2004 as ''Pinky Blue...Plus'' with added bonus tracks. The album was newly remastered and re-issued again in March 2017, this time on 180-gram black vinyl LP containing a bonus 7" single on blue vinyl. It was then released as a deluxe 2 LP edition with additional bonus tracks in May 2017. The tracks/versions from the colored 7" included with the first vinyl reissue remain exclusive to that release. The original U.S. edition of the album differed from the original UK edition by including an exclusive extended mix of the single "See Those Eyes". Other countries, such as Australia and Spain, included the band's previous hit single "Happy Birthday" as part of a re-shuffled running order on the LP.

Critical reception

Reception for the album was mixed, bordering on negative. ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' criticised the album for being overly commercial, '' Sounds'' claimed that it lacked soul, and ''

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 ...

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deemed it a "big disappointment".Altered Images profile - ''Pinky Blue'' section
/ref> Retrospectively,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised the singles "I Could Be Happy" and "See Those Eyes", but added that the inclusion of "Song Sung Blue" was "a mistake."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Altered Images, except where indicated. ;Side One # "Pinky Blue" (3.10) # "See Those Eyes" (3.10) # "Forgotten" (2.39) # "Little Brown Head" (2.42) # "See You Later" (3.16) # "

" (

) (4.14) ;Side Two # "Funny Funny Me" (3.24) # "Think That It Might" (2.52) # " I Could Be Happy" (Dance Mix) (5.38) # "Jump Jump" (3.11) # "Goodnight and I Wish" (4.06) ;CD bonus tracks (2004) # "I Could Be Happy" (7" Version) (3.32) # "Insects" (3.31) # "Disco Pop Stars" (2.35) # "Happy New Year - Real Toys" (New Version) (3.52) # "See Those Eyes" (Dance Mix) (5.32) # "How About That Then (I Missed My Train)" (3.24) # "Pinky Blue" (Dance Mix) (4.57) # "Jump Jump - Think That It Might" (Segued Dance Mix) (6.01) ;Bonus colored 7" from LP reissue (2017) # "I Could Be Happy" (Single version) # "Insects" (re-recorded Martin Rushent version) ;Bonus LP from double vinyl reissue (2017) ;Side One # "See Those Eyes (Dance Mix)" # "Pinky Blue (Dance Mix)" # "Disco Pop Stars" ;Side Two # "Jump Jump - Think That It Might (Dance Mix)" # "How About That Then (I've Missed My Train)" # "See Those Eyes (U.S. Extended Version)"

Personnel

;Altered Images *

Clare Grogan Claire Patricia Grogan (born 17 March 1962), known professionally as Clare Grogan or sometimes as C. P. Grogan, is a Scottish singer and actress. She is best known as the lead singer of the 1980s new wave music group Altered Images, as well a ...

- vocals *Michael "Tich" Anderson - drums *Tony McDaid - guitar * Johnny McElhone - bass *Jim McKinven - guitar with: *

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

- backing vocals, whistling ;Technical *Martin Rushent - producer, engineer * Dave Allen - assistant engineer *David Band - direction *Eric Watson, Chris Webster, Peter Anderson - photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1982 albums Altered Images albums Albums produced by Martin Rushent Epic Records albums Portrait Records albums