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) | |||
| Label | Snapper Music | |||
| Producer | Tim Bowness, Steven Wilson | |||
| No-Man chronology | ||||
| ||||
| CD/DVD-A | ||||
 Digitally Remastered CD-DVDA |
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| 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.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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" (bonus track only included on the high resolution stereo mix and surround mix of the two disc Snapper edition) | 2:36 |
| 9. | "The Break-up for Real – drum mix" (bonus track only included on the high resolution stereo mix and surround mix of the two disc Snapper edition) | 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.
Personnel
- Tim Bowness - vocals, words
- Steven Wilson - instruments, harmony vocals
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)
- David Picking - trumpet (1,2), electronics (1,2,3,4), percussion (2,5)
External links
References
- ↑ Allmusic review
- ↑ Classic rock review
- ↑ Eastern Daily Press review
- ↑ Uncut review
- ↑ "music video directed by Stephen Bennett". 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-06-26.