Now That's What I Call Quite Good!

by The Housemartins

Overview

Gathering singles, B-sides, BBC sessions, and key album cuts from all chapters of the Housemartins' brief but brilliant career, the posthumous Now That's What I Call Quite Good! is both a glowing greatest-hits package and an odds-and-ends clearinghouse -- a fitting epitaph for a band which thrived on contradictions in consistently pitting the personal versus the political and the secular versus the spiritual. Despite the uniform excellence of their two studio LPs, this release confirms once and for all that the Housemartins were first and foremost a singles band -- even removed from their album context, highlights including "Bow Down," "Build," and "The Light Is Always Green" boast all the immediacy and infectiousness of classic pop radio fodder, even if their actual mainstream appeal was minimal at best. The previously uncollected material, meanwhile, reveals a warmth and intimacy often missing from Paul Heaton's most trenchant social commentaries -- in particular, the "garage gospel" approach which distinguishes remarkable readings of Luther Ingram's "I'll Be Your Shelter" and the Isley Brothers' "Caravan of Love" (the latter the Housemartins' lone U.K. chart-topper) radiate an intensely humanistic empathy which underlines the utter conviction at the heart of all the group's work. ~ Jason Ankeny

Product Details

Release Date:	06/30/1998
Label:	Go! Discs
UPC:	0042282834423

Tracks

1. I Smell Winter
2. Bow Down
3. Think for a Minute
4. There Is Always Something There to Remind Me
5. The Mighty Ship
6. Sheep
7. I'll Be Your Shelter (Just Like a Shelter)
8. Five Get Over Excited
9. Everyday's the Same
10. Build
11. Step Outside
12. Flag Day
13. Happy Hour
14. You've Got a Friend
15. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
16. Freedom
17. The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death
18. Caravan of Love
19. The Light Is Always Green
20. We're Not Deep
21. Me and the Farmer
22. Lean on Me
23. Drop Down Dead
24. Hopelessly Devoted to Them

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Housemartins   Primary Artist
Jeff Wood   Piano
Pete Wingfield   Piano,Keyboards
Guy Barker   Trumpet
Sandy Blair   Tuba
St. Winifred's School Choir   Vocals (Background)
Hugh Whitaker   Vibraphone

Technical Credits

Barry Andrews   Producer
Andy Turner   Engineer
Bob Russell   Composer
The Housemartins   Producer
Carole King   Composer
Ernie Isley   Composer
Robert William Scott   Composer
Phil Bodger   Engineer,Producer
Jeff Wood   Producer
Pete Wingfield   Composer
Roy Neave   Engineer
Marvin Isley   Composer
Dale "Buffin" Griffin   Producer
Chris Jasper   Composer
Lloyd Charmers   Composer
David Dade   Engineer
Nikki Rodgerson   Photography
Pierre Jahan   Photography
Paul Rider   Photography
Martyn Parker   Engineer
John Williams   Engineer,Producer
Ben Cape   Engineer
Lawrence Watson   Photography
Ted Key   Composer
Kay Godwin   Photography
Stan Cullimore   Composer
Paul Patterson   Illustrations
Paul Heaton   Composer,Illustrations