Together We're Stranger

Together We're Stranger
Studio album by No-Man
Released 2 September 2003
Recorded 2001 to 2003
Genre Post Rock, Art rock, Ambient
Length 47:11 (CD)
53:45 (2-Disc Edition, 2014 Remaster 1-Disc Edition)
Label Snapper Music
Producer Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson
No-Man chronology
Returning Jesus
(2001)Returning Jesus2001		 Together We're Stranger
(2003)		 Schoolyard Ghosts
(2008)Schoolyard Ghosts2008
CD/DVD-A
Digitally Remastered CD-DVDA
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Classic rock(8/10)[2]
Eastern Daily Press[3]
Uncut[4]

Together We're Stranger is No-Man's fifth studio album released by the Snapper Music label in 2003.

The first four songs are linked to form a 28-minute suite of continuous music with recurring lyrical and musical themes. Atmospheric and ambitious, this aspect of the album in some way recalls the more Ambient elements of Pink Floyd, Brian Eno and Miles Davis and the later experiments of Mark Hollis/Talk Talk. The remaining three songs prominently feature acoustic guitar and clarinet dominated arrangements and are amongst the band's most stripped-down and intimate recordings. Comparable in parts to the "exposed" approach of bands such as Red House Painters, Lambchop or Low, Together We're Stranger represents the band's sparsest and most directly emotional work to date.

In keeping with other No-Man releases, the title track reuses the musical basis of a previous Steven Wilson work: that of "Drugged" from his first Bass Communion album. The chord progression in "The Break-Up For Real" would later be reused by Wilson for songs on Porcupine Tree's last album, The Incident.

The album was released in a limited edition white vinyl format on the Dutch label Tonefloat in November 2005 and in February 2007 on Snapper Music as a two disc CD/DVD edition comprising a remastered 5.1 DVD-A surround sound mix, high resolution 24 bit stereo of the album and additional bonus material. In 2014 was released a remaster (by Steven Wilson) single-disc edition on the Kscope label, includes 2 bonus tracks "Bluecoda" and "The Break-up for Real – drum mix".

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Together We're Stranger"8:31
2."All the Blue Changes"7:48
3."The City in a Hundred Ways"2:23
4."Things I Want to Tell You"9:03
5."Photographs in Black and White"10:03
6."Back When You Were Beautiful"5:07
7."The Break-up for Real"4:11
8."Bluecoda" (vinyl bonus track later included on the high resolution stereo and surround mixes of the two disc Snapper edition and on 2014 remaster 1-disc edition; originally placed before "Photographs in Black and White")2:36
9."The Break-up for Real – drum mix" (vinyl bonus track later included on the high resolution stereo and surround mix of the two disc Snapper edition and on 2014 remaster 1-disc edition; originally replaced the other version on the single LP editions, then was included in addition to the original mix on the double LP pressing)3:58

Two disc Snapper edition

The two disc edition (on Snapper Music) comes with the original stereo mix on CD and a DVD featuring the album in 5.1 DVD-A surround sound and in high resolution 24 bit stereo, with bonus tracks "Bluecoda" and "The Break-up for Real – drum mix" as well as the video for "Things I Want to Tell You"[5] and a photo gallery. Both "Bluecoda" and "The Break-up for Real – drum mix" later appeared on the compilation album All The Blue Changes - An Anthology 1988–2003 and on the 2014 Remaster version of the album, released by Kscope label.

Personnel

with:

  • Michael Bearpark - guitar solo (1)
  • Stephen Bennett - noise (1), organ and cymbal (6)
  • Ben Castle - clarinet, bass clarinet, flute
  • Peter Chilvers - space-bass (1,2), bass (6)
  • Roger Eno - harmonium (5,8)
  • David Picking - trumpet (1,2), electronics (1,2,3,4), percussion (2,5,9)

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic review
  2. ↑ Classic rock review
  3. ↑ Eastern Daily Press review
  4. ↑ Uncut review
  5. ↑ "music video directed by Stephen Bennett". 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-06-26.
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