Perhaps (album)

Perhaps
Studio album by The Associates
Released	February 9th, 1985
Genre	New Wave, synthpop
Label	WEA
Producer	Martyn Ware, Martin Rushent, Dave Allen, Greg Walsh
The Associates chronology
Sulk (1982) Perhaps (1985) Wild and Lonely (1989)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Perhaps is the fourth album released by the Scottish New Wave band, Associates. It is the first album without founding multi-instrumentalist Alan Rankine.

Contents 1 Development 2 Style 3 Availability 4 Track listing 4.1 Original vinyl & cassette 4.2 CD reissue 5 Personnel 6 References

Development

With the departure of Alan Rankine and Michael Dempsey, the Associates were effectively a Billy MacKenzie solo project for this album. MacKenzie started work with Steve Reid, a guitarist from Dundee and Howard Hughes, an accomplished keyboard player in late 1982 after the departure of Rankine and came up with an album's worth of material. However the sessions were chaotic and the resulting album was deemed unreleasable by WEA and they demanded Billy to work on it to make it releasable. The master tapes for this version went missing over the Xmas period in 1982 (allegedly Billy hid them due to his own dissatisfaction with the record). The album was restarted from scratch and was finally finished after a further two years in 1985 with four different producers. It cost £250,000 to make, a lot of money for even a major label record in those times. The album was a commercial failure, it made number 23 in the UK charts but only sold around 40,000 copies putting Billy in significant debt to WEA.

Style

Compared to Sulk, Perhaps was slightly more restrained. The watery production style was replaced by LinnDrum patterns, orchestration and a predominantly synth based sound with guitars taking even more of a backseat. Songs such as "Breakfast" heralded the soulful ballad sound that Billy would switch to with his next album. However certain songs still had the frenetic hysteria that Sulk provided especially on "Helicopter Helicopter" and "Schampout". There are a lot of different styles on the record from the skewed synthpop of "Perhaps" to the classical meets unconventional instrumentation of "Thirteen Feelings".

Availability

For years Perhaps was only available on vinyl and cassette. However due to the reissue program of Associates material after Billy Mackenzie's death it was re-released along with the unreleased Glamour Chase album in a double CD package in 2002. The bonus instrumentals included on the original cassette release were not included.

Track listing

Original vinyl & cassette

Side One

1. Those First Impressions
2. Waiting For The Loveboat
3. Perhaps
4. Schampout
5. Helicopter Helicopter
6. Perhaps (Instrumental)*

Side Two

1. Breakfast
2. Thirteen Feelings
3. The Stranger In Your Voice
4. The Best Of You
5. Don't Give Me That 'I Told You So' Look
6. Breakfast Alone (Instrumental)*
7. Thirteen Feelings (Instrumental)*
8. The Stranger In Your Voice (Instrumental)*

CD reissue

1. Those First Impressions - 4:41
2. Waiting For The Loveboat - 6:55
3. Perhaps - 6:32
4. Schampout - 6:02
5. Helicopter Helicopter - 4:07
6. Breakfast - 5:31
7. Thirteen Feelings - 4:39
8. The Stranger In Your Voice - 6:15
9. The Best Of You - 5:37
10. Don't Give Me That 'I Told You So' Look - 5:12

* Bonus tracks on cassette release only

Personnel

• Billy MacKenzie - Vocals
• Steve Reid - Guitars
• Howard Hughes - Keyboards
• Roberto Soave - Bass on "Thirteen Feelings", "The Stranger In Your Voice" and "The Best Of You"
• Steve Goulding - Drums on "Schampout" and "Helicopter Helicopter"
• Jim Russell - Percussion on "Schampout"
• Ian Mcintosh - Guitar on "Those First Impressions"
• Eddi Reader - Vocals on "The Best Of You"
• Martyn Ware - Producer
• Martin Rushent - Producer
• Dave Allen - Producer
• Greg Walsh - Producer

References