Sheet Music (album)
Sheet Music | ||||
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Studio album by 10cc | ||||
Released | 28 May 1974[1] | |||
Recorded | 1974 | |||
Studio | Strawberry Studios, Stockport, Cheshire, England | |||
Genre | [2] | |||
Length | 37:12 | |||
Label |
UK (original release) Mercury (1982 reissue) Repertoire (2000 German CD reissue) | |||
Producer | 10cc | |||
10cc chronology | ||||
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Singles from Sheet Music | ||||
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Sheet Music is the second album by the English rock band 10cc. It was released in 1974 on UK records (No: UKAL 1007) and yielded the hit singles "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love". The album reached No 9 in the UK and No 81 in the United States. It was produced by 10cc, engineered and mixed by Eric Stewart.
Kevin Godley nominated Sheet Music as his favourite 10cc album to record. Graham Gouldman has also expressed that he considers Sheet Music the group's "best album, epitomising what 10cc was all about. Unique songwriting and production."[3]
Production
The album was produced by 10cc, engineered and mixed by Eric Stewart. In a 2006 interview ex-drummer Kevin Godley said: "We’d really started to explode creatively and didn’t recognise any boundaries. We were buzzing on each other and exploring our joint and individual capabilities. Lots of excitement and energy at those sessions and, more important, an innocence that was open to anything."[4]
While 10cc were recording the album during the day, Paul McCartney was using the studio in the evenings to produce his brother Mike's album, McGear. Graham Gouldman remarked how the band used Paul's drum kit for their album, and how Paul's influence was certainly felt while making the record.
The subject of the song "Clockwork Creep", which ends side one of the album, is a bomb describing its final minute in its countdown to detonation aboard a jumbo jet.[5]
Reception
Charley Walters in his 1974 Rolling Stone review felt that the band had "concocted standard pop into their own inventive, even sophisticated, art", and that while not typical pop music it would be popular with AM-oriented DJs and their listeners.[6] Billboard felt the band had a "certain zany feeling", but that "their songs are far from silly when carefully listened to" and they had "some of the most innovative vocal techniques and instrumental arrangements around".[7]
Singles
Three singles were taken from the album and were all released in 1974. "The Worst Band in the World" failed to chart, while "The Wall Street Shuffle" made number 10 in the UK and number 1 in the Netherlands. "Silly Love" made number 24 in the UK.
Legacy
Dave Thompson in a summary of the album for Allmusic felt that it had staying power and that it was "perhaps the most widely adventurous album of what would become a wildly adventurous year".[8] George Durbalau in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die felt it was "a piece of well-crafted, highly idiosyncratic pop" and was "in a word, inventive".[9]
This album in its entirety, including all of the Bonus cuts from the 1993 release and the 2007 release appear, along with 10cc's first album, "10cc" and all it's released Bonus cuts, on "10cc - The Complete UK Recordings," on Varèse Sarabande Records.
Track listing
Side one | ||||
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No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
1. | "The Wall Street Shuffle" | Stewart with Gouldman | 3:54 | |
2. | "The Worst Band in the World" |
| Creme with Gouldman | 2:49 |
3. | "Hotel" |
| Godley with Gouldman | 4:54 |
4. | "Old Wild Men" |
| Stewart and Godley | 3:21 |
5. | "Clockwork Creep" |
| Creme, Godley, and Stewart | 2:46 |
Side two | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
6. | "Silly Love" |
| Creme with Stewart | 4:01 |
7. | "Somewhere in Hollywood" |
| Godley with Creme | 6:39 |
8. | "Baron Samedi" |
| Stewart with Godley | 3:46 |
9. | "The Sacro-Iliac" |
| Gouldman with Godley | 2:33 |
10. | "Oh Effendi" |
| Godley and Stewart | 2:49 |
1993 CD release bonus track
- "Waterfall" (Stewart, Gouldman) – 3:43
2007 CD release bonus tracks
- "18 Carat Man of Means" – 3:27
- "Gismo My Way" (Instrumental) – 3:43
- "The Worst Band in the World" (Radio Version) – 2:49
This album in its entirety, including all of the Bonus cuts from the 1993 and 2007 release appear, along with 10cc's first album, "10cc" and all it's released Bonus cuts, on "10cc - The Complete UK Recordings," on Varèse Sarabande Records.[10][11]
Personnel
10cc
- Eric Stewart – guitars, keyboards, vocals
- Lol Creme – guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals
- Graham Gouldman – bass guitar, guitar, percussion, vocals
- Kevin Godley – drums, percussion, vocals
References
- ↑ "10cc to celebrate Sheet Music's 40th anniversary at Royal Albert Hall gig". Express.co.uk. 12 May 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
- ↑ Grimstad, Paul. "What is Avant-Pop?". Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
- ↑ "10cc: music". 10cc Official Website. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
- ↑ "Kevin Godley interview". Muzikreviews.com. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
- ↑ Lester, Paul (22 November 2012). "10cc: 'It was a tragedy we didn't stay together'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
- ↑ Charley Walters (12 September 1974). "10cc – Sheet Music". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ↑ "10cc – Sheet Music". Billboard. 1974. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ↑ Dave Thompson (2012). "Sheet Music – 10cc | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
Dave Thompson
- ↑ George Durbalau. "1001 Albums: You Must Hear Before You Die". Books.google.co.uk. Octopus Publishing Group. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "10cc: The Complete UK Recordings 1972-1974" (review; CD release date, 16 March 2004). AllMusic. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ↑ "10cc: The Complete UK Recordings". Varesesarabande.com (publisher's product description). Retrieved 31 August 2017.
External links
- Sheet Music (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)