Perhaps (Associates album)

Infobox Album
Name = Perhaps
Type = Studio Album
Longtype =
Artist = The Associates


Released = February 9th, 1985
Recorded =
Genre = New Wave, Synthpop
Length =
Label = WEA
Producer = Martyn Ware, Martin Rushent, Dave Allen, Greg Walsh
Reviews = *All Music Guide Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fifexq95ldte link]
Last album = Sulk (1982)
This album = Perhaps (1985)
Next album = Wild and Lonely (1989)

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

Development

With the departure of Alan Rankine and Michael Dempsey, the Associates were effectively a Billy MacKenzie solo project from this album onwards. MacKenzie started work with Steve Reid, a guitarist from Dundee and Howard Hughes, a accompished keyboard player straight 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 (allegedly Billy hid them due to his own disatisfaction with the record). The album was started from scratch and was finally finished after 4 years in 1985 with 4 different producers and 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 and there is a lot of different styles on the record from the skewed synthpop of Perhaps and the classisicism meets unconventional instrumentation of Thirteen Feelings.

Availability

For years Perhaps was only available on vinyl. 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.

Tracklisting

#Those First Impressions - 4:43
#Waiting For The Loveboat - 6:55
#Perhaps - 6:32
#Schampout - 6:02
#Helicopter Helicopter - 4:09
#Breakfast - 5:34
#Thirteen Feelings - 4:39
#The Stranger In Your Voice - 6:15
#The Best Of You - 5:37
#Don't Give Me That 'I Told You So' Look - 5:13

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"
*Eddie Reader - Vocals on "The Best Of You"
*Martyn Ware - Producer
*Martin Rushent - Producer
*Dave Allen - Producer
*Greg Walsh - Producer