Cruel Guards

Cruel Guards
Studio album by The Panics
Released 13 October 2007 (Australia)
7 October 2008 (US, Canada, South Africa)
Recorded BJB Studios Sydney,
Additional recording in Melbourne & New York
Genre Indie rock
Length 44:00
Label Dew Process
Producer Scott Horscroft
The Panics
The Panics chronology
Factory Girl
(2006)
Cruel Guards
(2007)
Rain on the Humming Wire
(2011)
Singles from Cruel Guards
  1. "Don't Fight It"
    Released: 31 March 2008

Cruel Guards is the third studio album by Australian indie rock band The Panics, released on 13 October 2007 on Dew Process.

Contents

Background

The Panics commenced work on the album in 2006, after finishing touring & promoting the band's last album, Sleeps Like a Curse. The band relocated from their hometown of Perth to Melbourne and set up a studio in a house in Collingwood. The album was written and demoed in Melbourne before the band went to BJB Studios in Sydney where they started working on the record with Scott Horsecroft. Cruel Guards was produced by The Panics and Horsecroft with additional recordings in New York and Melbourne. The album was mixed by Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Beth Orton) in New York.

The album was Triple J's feature album for the week of 8 October 2007 (Triple J review) and went on to win the 2007 J Award.

"It was amazing to win that award. We celebrated for days with the Triple J staff and then just fell over." - Drew Wootton[1]

Cruel Guards debuted at #18 on the ARIA Album Charts and reached #4 on the Australian Album Charts.[2] The album achieving gold status (sales of 35,000) within six months of its release.[3] The album was nominated for three ARIA Awards - 'Best Adult Contemporary Album'; 'Best Producer' (The Panics & Scott Horsecroft) and 'Best Engineer Record' (Scott Horsecroft), with "Don't Fight It" nominated for 'Best Breakthrough Artist - Single'.[4][5][6]

"Don't Fight It" is the first song to be lifted from the album and has received significant airplay on Triple J[7] and community radio stations across Australia. The song was voted in to the number ten position in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2007 and reached #43 on the ARIA singles chart.[8] The track has since received airplay on major commercial stations, such as Triple M and Nova.[1] It was also featured on an episode of the Australian television drama series Underbelly and on the Underbelly soundtrack album.[9][10]

"Don't Fight It" has also been nominated for 'Best Breakthrough Artist Single' at the 2008 ARIA Awards.[5][6]

Track listing

All tracks written by Jae Laffer, Paul Otway, Drew Wootton, Myles Wootton and Julian Grigor.[11]

  1. "Get Us Home" - 4:16
  2. "Ruins" - 3:42
  3. "Creaks" - 4:02
  4. "Don't Fight It" - 5:01
  5. "Feeling is Gone" - 3:23
  6. "Cruel Guards" - 5:15
  7. "Live Without" - 4:17
  8. "Something in the Garden" - 4:57
  9. "Confess" - 3:49
  10. "Sundowner" - 5:18

iTunes Bonus Track Version:

  1. "My Best Mistake" - 3:13
  2. "In Your Head" - 4:02
  3. "Cash" - 4:15
  4. "Kid You're a Dreamer" - 3:20

Bonus EP Join the Dots

Limited copies of the album included an EP of covers called Join The Dots.

  1. "Lazyitis" (Mark Day, Paul Davis, Paul Ryder, Gary Whelan, Shaun Ryder, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sly Stone, David Essex) - 3:56
  2. "One Too Many Mornings" (Bob Dylan) - 2:28
  3. "Factory Girl" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 2:31
  4. "Who By Fire" (Leonard Cohen) - 3:04
  5. "Just Like A Woman" (Dylan) - 4:47

Personnel

The Panics

Additional musicians

Reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [12]
The Dwarf (favorable)[13]
FasterLouder (favorable)[14]
The Independent [15]
Mess and Noise (favorable)[16]
Polaroids of Androids (3.7/10.0)[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Spurgin, Melissa (30 April 2008). "High praise for Panics". Sunshine Coast Daily. http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/apr/30/high-praise-panics/. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  2. ^ "ARIA Australian Album Charts". ARIA. 5 November 2007. http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display.asp?chart=1S20AUS&chart2=1A20AUS. Retrieved 2007-11-05. 
  3. ^ "Golden run continues for The Panics". Eleven magazine. 10 March 2008. http://elevenmagazine.com.au/2008/03/10/golden-run-continues-for-the-panics/. Retrieved 2008-10-27. 
  4. ^ "ARIA Awards 2008 : Nominees". ARIA. http://www.ariaawards.com.au/winners-nominees-2008.php. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  5. ^ a b "ARIA Award finalists announced". PerthNow. 10 September 2008. http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24324371-5005381,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  6. ^ a b "ARIA awards - the nominations in full". Herald Sun. 11 September 2008. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24324343-2902,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  7. ^ "Don't Fight It by The Panics". J Play. http://www.jplay.com.au/JSite/ViewSong.aspx?SongID=10696. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  8. ^ "Australian Chartifacts". Australian-charts.com. 19 May 2008. http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=21937. Retrieved 2008-06-12. 
  9. ^ "Underbelly - Soundtrack". Shock Records. http://www.shock.com.au/default.aspx?s=releasedisplay&artistid=10339&releaseid=33520. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  10. ^ Yallamas, Lisa (1 May 2008). "Underbelly Uncut sells outbefore it hits the shops". The Courier-Mail. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23628373-5012980,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  11. ^ "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. http://www.apra.com.au/cms/worksearch/worksearch.srvlt?action=workSearch&switchDet=Y. Retrieved 2008-04-08. 
  12. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/cruel-guards-r1245146
  13. ^ http://www.thedwarf.com.au/nd/albumreviews/cruel_guards_panics_the
  14. ^ http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/reviews/music/10790/The-Panics--Cruel-Guards
  15. ^ Gill, Andy (29 May 2009). The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-the-panics-cruel-guards-puacuteblica-1692410.html. 
  16. ^ http://www.messandnoise.com/releases/5799
  17. ^ http://polaroidsofandroids.com/record-reviews/the-panics-cruel-guards/83.html