Song (It's Immaterial Album)
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''Song'' is the second album by English
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
act It's Immaterial, released in June 1990 by Siren Records. Reduced to a duo of John Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead, It's Immaterial recorded the album with producer
Calum Malcolm Calum Malcolm is a Scottish record producer, sound engineer and keyboardist, who is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Career From 1974, he has worked with bands and musicians such as The Blue Nile, Capercaillie, Clannad, Emily Barker, Fish, The ...
in his Castlesound studios in
Pencaitland Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, about south-east of Edinburgh, south-west of Haddington, and east of Ormiston. The land where the village lies is said to have been granted by William the Lion to Calum Cormack in 1169, ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, having chosen him for his keyboard skills and work with the Blue Nile. With Malcolm, the duo spent a lengthy time recording the record with meticulous sessions that incorporated extensive homemade sampling, including some samples recorded outdoors. The album features a synthesized, evocative sound with flowing, repetitive musical patterns, and songs which ignored traditional song structures by forgoing choruses. Campbell's story-like lyrics feature an English feel with their suburban settings and references to people and place names he knew in the
North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...
. Promoted by the single "Heaven Knows", ''Song'' was a commercial failure with its
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
style out of step with the popular music of its time. However, it was hailed by critics for its unique, adventurous style and clever lyrics. The album was re-released by
Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...
in 2009.


Background

With their 1986 single " Driving Away from Home (Jim's Tune)", the
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
-based It's Immaterial had a UK Top 20 hit, while the album '' Life's Hard and Then You Die'' reached number 62 in the corresponding album chart. Following the release of further singles from their album, "Eds Funky Dinner" and "Space (He Called from the Kitchen)", the group left the public eye and downsized to a principal duo of John Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead. A planned tour with
Les Rita Mitsouko Les Rita Mitsouko (, translation: ''The Rita Mitsukos'') were a French pop rock group formed by Fred Chichin and Catherine Ringer. The duo first performed as Rita Mitsouko at Gibus Club in Paris in 1980. They went on to become one of the most a ...
was canceled following a fall out between the artists. After touring Europe in support of ''Life's Hard'', It's Immaterial returned to Britain in 1987 and began demoing material for ''Song'' in a small rehearsal studio fitted with a
16-track Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive who ...
recorder. Ross Stapleton – an A&R worker at the duo's label Siren Records, owned by
Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
– felt from the duo's demos that they would find recording the album a struggle, especially given the group's previous moments of
writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...
. The duo picked producer
Calum Malcolm Calum Malcolm is a Scottish record producer, sound engineer and keyboardist, who is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Career From 1974, he has worked with bands and musicians such as The Blue Nile, Capercaillie, Clannad, Emily Barker, Fish, The ...
for ''Song'' based on his engineering of the Blue Nile's '' A Walk Across the Rooftops'' (1984); he accepted based on the duo's primitive song ideas alone, which Campbell described as "just a calling card: some chords and some words. They weren't songs. They were just, 'This is the kind of thing that we might like to explore.'" Though Stapleton felt Malcolm was "an inspired choice," he feared it would result in a "masterwork of brilliance" which would fail commercially after the group's more radio-friendly debut.


Recording

In March 1988, the duo moved to
East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...
, Scotland to begin recording the album at Malcolm's
Pencaitland Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, about south-east of Edinburgh, south-west of Haddington, and east of Ormiston. The land where the village lies is said to have been granted by William the Lion to Calum Cormack in 1169, ...
countryside studio Castlesound, which he operated in a former schoolhouse. Malcolm "gradually dismantled" the duo's songs until, as Campbell says, "this whole new way of working revealed itself," with the producer adding atmospheric drones and
arpeggio An arpeggio () is a type of Chord (music), chord in which the Musical note, notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpe ...
s. He favored space and quietness in the production, and worked with the duo to create an album with "the required 'emotional hit'"; they also knew Siren Records would soon close, which Campbell believed due to Virgin owner
Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...
being focused on his airline business, so saw the album as a chance to make one "that has everything about you in it." Recording in the Scottish countryside, Campbell felt the area contributed to the album's "very open and languid" sound, which he felt would have contrasted a more frenetic feel had the album been recorded in a city, and resultingly the duo and Malcolm generally worked in isolation, a departure from the "many different people" involved in ''Life's Hard''. One reason the duo chose Malcolm was his keyboard skills, which Whitehead described as "very subtle; every note he plays is designed to enhance the song. In that sense, he's very 'efficient'." As they had with their first album, the group used the
Roland TR-808 The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patterns. ...
drum machine but moved the
acoustic piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal tempe ...
further back into the mix. ''Song'' also features many samples, and excepting some sounds taken from the
E-mu Emulator The Emulator is a series of digital sampling synthesizers using floppy-disk storage that was manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 2002. Although it was not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was innovative in its integratio ...
library, these were created by the band, including numerous recorded outside, on one instance traveling to the East Lothian coast to sample
castanets Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument ( idiophonic), used in Spanish, Calé, Moorish, Ottoman, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Sephardic, Portuguese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Swiss music. In ancient ...
in a
cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
. Rather than create digital
reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...
, Malcolm used natural reverb in a room at Castlesound, where he and the duo spent time experimenting with different instruments. The duo also used many percussive samples on ''Song'', taken from a range of ethnic instruments left behind in the studio by the Blue Nile percussionist Nigel Thomas. Campbell felt aware that "there are certain traps you can fall into," so the duo used a variety of sounds to build up a sense of rhythm on the album's material, as opposed to "deliberately trying to find something different." The duo spent months with Malcolm trying to create "a particular kind of tension" for the album; Campbell explained: "In a sense, it's a sort of controlled emotion; it's not quite letting go at any point. That's what was interesting to me at the time. You get the impression that something's just about to happen in the narrative, but it never quite does." By 1989, It's Immaterial had only completed one song and spent much time contemplating whether to create a long-form
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
for ''Song'', about which rumors spread in late 1989. Whitehead says: "There certainly wasn't any commercial success to speak of, we're just fortunate in having a rather gracious record company who allow us to work at our own pace." Campbell recalls that, when it came to writing the final song, the duo decided to "roll up our sleeves and write the single which we can use to sell the other nice songs." However, after a year of trying to achieve this, including changing the EQ of certain instruments on their recordings, they found this unsuccessful. He reflected: "We couldn't bear to go through with it. It isn't that we don't want to do anything commercial, it just doesn't seem to work for us."


Composition

Unlike ''Life's Hard'', which collected songs written since the band was formed, ''Song'' was conceived as a ten-song album. Stylistically, is characterised by Whitehead's flowing, repetitive musical patterns, largely based around piano, and Campbell's songs which are both sung and spoken. Considered by critic Dave Schulps to be "more a collection of stories put to music than actual songs," due to the absence of choruses, ''Song'' instead moves beyond the traditional pop song format and showcases introspective sounds, with an atmospheric,
synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
-heavy pop sound with "skimpy drumbeats, plinking pianos and pastel flourishes," according to critic Peter Kane. According to writer
Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...
, "the music was of a subdued, understated nature, with wry wit in the manner of an indie
Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...
." Musical influences on ''Song'' included
Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
,
Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
,
Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are a British-Australian band founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, before relocating to London the following year. The Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "const ...
,
Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads
and OMD, while biographer Malcolm Dome noted elements of
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
,
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
,
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...
and new wave styles within the album's "
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...
pulse". Campbell began writing the songs using expressions he had discovered and incorporated his own experiences around them. Many of the names in the songs refer to his friends, and the locations are largely real places he has visited, creating an " English feel" he felt was a natural reaction against Americanisms. According to journalist Penny Kiley, "a sense of place is strong in every song. Each song is a story and the Liverpool-based Mancunians have set them firmly in the
North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...
." Nigel Lord of ''Music Technology'' highlights the "underlying Englishness" that ''Song'' has in common with the first album, citing "a pre-occupation with suburbia, out-of-season holiday towns and drab Sunday afternoons - all traditional English themes." Wyndham Wallace of ''
Classic Pop Traditional pop (also known as vocal pop or pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...
'' felt the songs to be poignant, sensitive portrayals of "the minutiae of Thatcher-era
working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
life" and compared them to
Shelagh Delaney Shelagh Delaney FRSL (; 25 November 1938 – 20 November 2011) was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, '' A Taste of Honey'' (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war B ...
. "Endless Holiday" concerns a desperate, unemployed
househusband A stay-at-home dad is a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is generally the homemaker of the household. The female equivalent is the stay-at-home mother or housewife. As families have evolved, the practice of being a stay-at- ...
, while "Heaven Knows" depicts a "financially overstretched suburban existence", according to Wallace. "An Ordinary Life", meanwhile, was inspired by the short story '' Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' (1920) by
F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...
, and documents a lonely Mr. Hart's infatuation with a checkout girl named Bernice. "New Brighton" refers both to the town of that name and a 'frame of mind'; Campbell explained: "Everybody's going out and you're the stubborn one in a way because you quite like it. I like New Brighton, I wouldn't mind staying there." "Heaven Knows" was released as a
double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
single with the non-album song "River", backed with the B-side "Faith".


Release and reception

While the evocative,
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
nature of ''Song'' was not strictly commercial, It's Immaterial hoped the album would attract "the sort of people who make the effort to listen closely to music", according to journalist Penny Kiley. The duo planned to proceed with making the "long-form video" to accompany ''Song'' if the album was commercially successful. The album was released in June 1990 by Siren Records, in a sleeve featuring
David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Hen ...
's 1948 painting ''Mount St Hilarion and the Castle Ruins''. Failing to reach 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 ...
, ''Song'' proved a commercial flop. Wallace recalled that "with street-friendly
dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...
like
Happy Mondays Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up consisted of brothers Shaun Ryder (vocals) and Paul Ryder (bass), Gaz Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry la ...
and
Soul II Soul Soul II Soul are a British musical collective formed in London in 1988. They are best known for their two major hits; 1989's UK number five and US number eleven " Keep On Movin'", and its follow-up, the UK number one and US number four " Back to ...
in the ascendant, by the time the record was released in 1990 it tanked. Having toiled interminably over it – much as
Talk Talk Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981 by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass), and Simon Brenner (keyboards). Initially a synth-pop group, Talk Talk's first two albums, '' The Party's Over'' (198 ...
did with ''
Spirit of Eden ''Spirit of Eden'' is the fourth studio album by English band Talk Talk, released in 1988 on Parlophone Records. It was compiled from a lengthy recording process at London's Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988, with songs written by singer Mar ...
'' – they watched it disappear, seemingly without trace." Campbell reflected that there "wasn't really a hope in hell" for the album to be successful, referring to its commercial response as "the mood of the record". Despite its poor sales, ''Song'' was critically acclaimed for its unique sound. Peter Kane of '' Q'' described the album as exploring the rich potential for "atmospheric synthersizer pop", with conversational songs of "quiet desperation" bearing tenderness and dour humour to "accompany the often crippling hurt of life and love among the ruins," ultimately hailing it "a sizeable achievement". A reviewer for ''
Hi-Fi News & Record Review ''Hi-Fi News & Record Review'' is a British monthly magazine, published by AV Tech Media Ltd, which reviews audiophile-oriented sound-reproduction and recording equipment, and includes information on new products and developments in audio. It i ...
'' wrote that the album's "soft soporific sounds envelope clever lyrical exercises" in a manner comparable to the Blue Nile. Dave Schulps of ''
Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who, Dave Schulps, and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...
'' described the album as often hypnotic, sounding "something like Philip Glass meets
Marc Almond Peter Mark Almond (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist of the synth-pop/ new wave duo Soft Cell. He has a distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He has had a diverse career as a ...
", but felt listeners may find the record "a bit tedious" if they were not drawn in by the lyrics, concluding: "This is music best listened to when distractions are at a minimum; don't expect to hear it in dance clubs." Penny Kiley of the ''
Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...
'' recommended ''Song'' in her "albums of the month" column. In a more reserved review, Glenn Rice of '' Select'' praised It's Immaterial for approaching their "gloomy" subjects "sort of sideways on", with whispered vocals and instrumentation that together suggest "a more subdued Pet Shop Boys", but felt the band seemed disengaged and unenthusiastic, describing ''Song'' as "the pop equivalent of a
Lowry Lowry may refer to: People * Adam Lowry (born 1993), American ice hockey player * Calvin Lowry (born 1983), American football player * Dave Lowry (born 1965), Canadian ice hockey player * Desiree Lowry (born 1972), Puerto Rican beauty pageant t ...
painting – simplistic, flat and populated by workaday characters fostering ideas of escape from life's dreariness." Alistair Mabbott of '' The List'' considered the uncommercial sound of the album disappointing, adding that if the duo "intended it to be leavened by a dose of quirky humour, it hasn't worked." He also compared Campbell's unfavourably with Paul Buchanan of the Blue Nile, a band he noted the album's "sustained mood and melancholy" was texturally similar to.


Legacy

Held in high esteem by Its Immaterial fans, ''Song'' was retrospectively described by Whitehead as "the It's Immaterial idea to an extreme," while Campbell said that he and Whitehead "were very proud of what we'd offered. If you look at what you're trying to produce as works of art, I actually thought ''Song'' was the nearest I'd got to something that would actually stand the test of time. And I think it's proven that." In 2009, ''Song'' was reissued by
Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...
with bonus
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...
s from the "Heaven Knows" single and liner notes from Malcolm Dome. In the liner notes, Dome said that although ''Song'' was not
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
, it was still an album of
progressive music Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific music genre, genres of music. The word comes from the basic concept of ":wiktionary:progress, progress", which refers to advancements thr ...
with "the precursors of what others have taken into the 21st Century", and called it "a work of art – modern
art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...
, if you like". In 2024, the editors of '' Uncut'' ranked the album at number 183 in their list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s", writing: "Shattering the standard chart pop format, It's Immaterial's second retained the synthpop atmospheres but discarded all the choruses, making for a series of wry musical stories from a working-class Britain akin to a synthpop ''
A Taste of Honey ''A Taste of Honey'' is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was adapted into an award-winning film of the same title in 1961. Set in Salford in North West England, it tells the story of Jo, ...
''."


Track listing


Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes of ''Song'' *John Campbell – performer *Jarvis Whitehead – performer *
Calum Malcolm Calum Malcolm is a Scottish record producer, sound engineer and keyboardist, who is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Career From 1974, he has worked with bands and musicians such as The Blue Nile, Capercaillie, Clannad, Emily Barker, Fish, The ...
– mixing, production


References

{{Authority control 1990 albums Virgin Records albums It's Immaterial albums Electronica albums by English artists Art rock albums by English artists Progressive music albums by English artists Experimental music albums by English artists