''Revolutionary Tea Party'' is an album by the Canadian musician
Lillian Allen
Lillian Allen (born 5 April 1951) is a Canadians, Canadian dub poetry, dub poet, writer and Juno Award winner.
Biography
Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Spanish Town, Jamaica, she left that country in 1969, first moving to New York City, where ...
, released in 1986. It won a
Juno Award
The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...
for
Best Reggae/Calypso Recording at the
Juno Awards of 1986
The Juno Awards of 1986, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 10 November 1986 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Howie Mandel at the Harbour Castle Hilton Hotel. CBC Television broadcast the ce ...
. The album sold around 5,000 copies in its first year of release. Allen subsequently named her band the Revolutionary Tea Party Band. The album was distributed in the U.S. by
Holly Near
Holly Near (born June 6, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist.
Family
Holly Near was born in Ukiah, California, United States, and was
raised on a ranch in Potter Valley, California.
She has two sisters, Ti ...
's Redwood Records.
Production
Allen was backed on the album by the Canadian band
the Parachute Club
The Parachute Club was a Canadian band formed in Toronto in 1982. They released three top 40 hits in Canada between 1983 and 1987, including "Rise Up", "At the Feet of the Moon" and "Love Is Fire" (which featured guest duet vocals from John O ...
; the band's
Billy Bryans produced the album.
Lorraine Segato
Lorraine P. Segato (born June 17, 1956, in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for and a principal songwriter of new wave and pop rock group The Parachute Club, with which she continues to ...
sang on "The Subversives". Allen asked her fans to help fund the album's production, which cost around $25,000.
Critical reception
The ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'' called Allen's voice "a keening, irresistible instrument," writing that the tracks "deal with frighteningly recognizable contemporary issues, with Canadians' offensive condescension towards Jamaican immigrants, with rape, the pain of birth and the myriad small, shattering injustices perpetrated against blacks, the underprivileged and women both in this country and in Jamaica."
''
The Kingston Whig-Standard
''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' is a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is published four days a week, on Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday. It publishes a mix of community, national and international news and is currently owned by Postm ...
'' declared that "Allen's poetry is a bracing jolt against complacency."
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 ...
called the album "a masterpiece of conscious female passion."
''
Ms.
Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'' included ''Revolutionary Tea Party'' on its 1991 list of landmark albums of the past 20 years.
[
]
Track listing
References
{{Authority control
Lillian Allen albums
1986 albums
Juno Award–winning albums