The King
Studio album by
Released27 August 1991[1]
GenreAlternative rock
Length32:38
LabelCreation
ProducerDon Fleming, Paul Chisholm, Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub chronology
A Catholic Education
(1990)
The King
(1991)
Bandwagonesque
(1991)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
The Great Rock Discography4/10[3]

The King is the second album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, deleted on its day of release in 1991.

The album is often derided as a hastily assembled contractual obligation to US label Matador (allowing the group to sign to Geffen without penalty). In 2020, Matador co-owner Gerard Cosloy confirms that The King was pitched to the label as the second release, but passed, saying it felt more like a contractual obligation fulfillment than a real album.[4] However the group have denied this, claiming that the shambolic, spontaneous nature of the contents was a direct influence of producer Don Fleming, whose music was often improvised. "One night we all got completely wasted. ... and we said, "Let’s make a LP overnight. We’ll just improvise some songs and do some covers and cobble it all together", Norman Blake said in 2016.[5] In a 2006 interview, Blake and Brendan O'Hare confirmed that the album had been recorded immediately after completing Bandwagonesque using pre-booked studio time that became available when the aforementioned album was finished sooner than anticipated. They also claimed that the album was intended to be a mid-price edition of 1,000 but their then UK label Creation Records pressed 20,000 and sold them at full price .

The album was rereleased on vinyl for Record Store Day 2019.[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Teenage Fanclub unless otherwise noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Heavy Metal 6" 1:31
2."Mudhoney" 6:04
3."Interstellar Overdrive"Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason3:24
4."Robot Love" 2:16
5."Like a Virgin"Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg4:31
6."The King" 2:23
7."Opal Inquest"Paul Chisholm, Teenage Fanclub5:36
8."The Ballad of Bow Evil (Slow And Fast)" 5:26
9."Heavy Metal 9" 1:27

Personnel

Teenage Fanclub
Additional musicians
Technical
  • Don Fleming – producer
  • Teenage Fanclub – producer
  • Paul Chisholm – producer, engineer
  • Keith Hartley – engineer
  • Dave Buchanan – assistant engineer

References

  1. Teenage Fanclub Discography
  2. Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Concise (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  3. Strong, Martin C. "Teenage Fanclub Biography". The Great Rock Bible. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  4. Davidson, Eric (3 June 2020). "Critical Mass: A Catholic Education at 30". Rock & Roll Globe. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  5. Lindsay, Cam (6 September 2016). "Rank Your Records: Norman Blake Merrily Rates the Ten Teenage Fanclub Albums". Noisey.vice.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  6. "Here's the full list of Record Store Day 2019 releases". NME. 12 April 2019.
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