Shop Assistants (album)

Shop Assistants
Studio album by
Shop Assistants
ReleasedNovember 1986
RecordedAugust 1986
StudioHart Street, Edinburgh
GenreIndie pop, noise pop
LabelBlue Guitar
ProducerMayo Thompson, John Ryan, Shop Assistants
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Martin C. Strong6/10[3]

Shop Assistants is the only album released by Shop Assistants. It was released in November 1986 on the Chrysalis Records "indie" offshoot Blue Guitar.[3][4] It spent one week on the UK albums chart at number 100 in November 1986.[5] The album was critically acclaimed by Sounds staff who put Shop Assistants on the list of top 50 best albums of 1986.[6] It was ranked the 47th best album of 1986 on NME's end-of-year critics' list.[7]

The album was reissued in 1997 by Overground Records under the title Will Anything Happen, and again on CD by Cherry Red in 2008 with two bonus tracks,[8] both of which had originally appeared on the B-side of the single "I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You". The album was described by AllMusic's Jason Ankeny as "an essential artefact of its times".[9]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Shop Assistants; except where noted.

  1. "I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You" - 2:18
  2. "All Day Long" - 1:50
  3. "Before I Wake" - 2:42
  4. "Caledonian Road" - 2:13
  5. "All That Ever Mattered" - 2:15
  6. "Fixed Grin" - 2:51
  7. "Somewhere in China" - 3:13
  8. "Train from Kansas City" (Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry) - 3:42
  9. "Home Again" - 1:41
  10. "Seems to Be" - 2:22
  11. "After Dark" - 2:36
  12. "All of the Time" - 2:23
  13. "What a Way to Die" (David Leone - uncredited) - 1:59
  14. "Nature Lover" - 1:55
  15. "Looking Back" (CD reissue only) - 1:45
  16. "All Day Long" (slow version) (CD reissue only) - 2:27

"What a Way to Die" was credited to "unknown", but it is a cover of David Leone's small hit for Pleasure Seekers.

Personnel

Shop Assistants
  • Alex Taylor - lead vocals, tambourine
  • David Keegan - guitar, noises
  • Sarah Kneale - bass guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "What a Day to Die"
  • Laura MacPhail - drums, glockenspiel

with:

  • Jon Hunter - trumpet on "All of the Time" and "Nature Lover"
Technical

References

  1. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Shop Assistants - Will Anything Happen". AllMusic.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 7 (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 428. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4.
  3. ^ a b Strong, M. C. (2003). The Great Indie Discography (2nd ed.). Canongate. p. 502.
  4. ^ Sheridan, David. "Shop Assistants". Trouser Press.
  5. ^ "Shop Assistants by Shop Assistants". Official Charts.
  6. ^ Andrzej Buda (2006) Historia rocka, popu i hip-hopu wedlu krytykow, Wydawnictwo Niezalezne: 68, 2006, ISBN 978-83-915272-8-3
  7. ^ "NME's best albums and tracks of 1986". NME. December 1986.
  8. ^ "Shop Assistants - Will Anything Happen", Cherry Red
  9. ^ Ankeny, Jason: "Shop Assistants", in Bogdanov, Vladimir, Woodstra, Chris, Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2002) All Music Guide to Rock, Backbeat Books, ISBN 978-0-87930-653-3
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