The Remote Part

The Remote Part
Studio album by Idlewild
Released 15 July 2002
Recorded 2001
Genre Rock
Length 38:14
Label Parlophone
Producer Dave Eringa
Stephen Street ("Track 9")
Guy Massey ("Track 6")
Idlewild chronology

100 Broken Windows
(2000)		 The Remote Part
(2002)		 Warnings/Promises
(2005)
Singles from The Remote Part
  1. "You Held the World in Your Arms"
    Released: April 2002
  2. "American English"
    Released: June 2002
  3. "Live in a Hiding Place"
    Released: October 2002
  4. "A Modern Way of Letting Go"
    Released: February 2003

The Remote Part is the third album by Scottish rock band Idlewild, released on 15 July 2002. It received broadly positive reviews[1] and is Idlewild's most commercially successful album to date, entering the UK album chart at Number 3 and selling 100,000 copies within a month. It is currently certified as Gold within the U.K.[2] Vocalist Roddy Woomble notes that the band felt like "a collective of songwriters"[3] during the writing process. Woomble credits guitarist Rod Jones with influencing the album's musical direction, stating that Jones "really started to take steps forward in terms of his guitar playing, and also his harmonies. I think he pulled the record in a more poppy way, as that’s the sort of musician he is – he loves bands like Teenage Fanclub and Yes and ELO and The Police."[3]

Touring guitarists Jeremy Mills and Allan Stewart[4] stayed with the band during recording, and appear on the final track "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction". They are also credited with writing "I Never Wanted" alongside the band. Following the album's release, Stewart later joined Idlewild as a permanent member, while bassist Bob Fairfoull left the band. At the end of "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction", Scottish poet Edwin Morgan recites a poem entitled Scottish Fiction, which was written especially for the album. The album was performed in full on 19 December 2008 at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow as part of a series of retrospective shows.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [5]
Austin Chronicle
Drawer B
Dot Music
Magnet [6]
Mojo [7]
NME [8]
Pitchfork Media [9]
Rolling Stone [10]

The album received positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 83, based on 20 reviews.[1]

Track listing

All songs by Idlewild unless otherwise stated.

  1. "You Held the World in Your Arms" – 3:21
  2. "A Modern Way of Letting Go" – 2:23
  3. "American English" – 4:34
  4. "I Never Wanted" (Idlewild/Jeremy Mills/Allan Stewart) – 3:55
  5. "(I Am) What I Am Not" – 2:43
  6. "Live in a Hiding Place" – 3:16
  7. "Out of Routine" – 3:09
  8. "Century After Century" – 4:01
  9. "Tell Me Ten Words" – 3:46
  10. "Stay the Same" – 3:11
  11. "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction" (Idlewild/Edwin Morgan) – 3:55

Personnel

Song appearances

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Idlewild: The Remote Part (2003): Reviews
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Drowned in Sound - Features - ReDiScover: Idlewild
  4. ↑ isnakebite.com > interviews > idlewild
  5. ↑ MacKenzie Wilson (2002-07-15). "The Remote Part - Idlewild". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  6. ↑ Magnet #58, p. 91
  7. ↑ Mojo August 2002, p. 112
  8. ↑ "NME Album Reviews - Idlewild : The Remote Part". Nme.Com. 2002-07-04. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "Rolling Stone Music | Album Reviews". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 2012-03-07.

External links