Queer (album)

Infobox Album | Name = Queer
Type = Album
Artist = Thompson Twins


Released = October 1991
Recorded =
Length = 48:01
Producer = Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Keith Fernley
Label = Warner Brothers
Genre = Alternative, Post-punk
Reviews =
Last album = "Big Trash" (1989)
This album = "Queer" (1991)
Next album = "Thompson Twins - Greatest Hits" (1996)|

"Queer" is the eighth (and final) studio album by the British pop group Thompson Twins.

Before the album's release, it appeared as if the band was on the verge of commercial rebirth. Tom Bailey and engineer Keith Fernley had been experimenting with making dance music under the moniker "Feedback Max". As such, they slipped several white-label 12" singles to London deejays, the most successful of which was a track called "Come Inside". The rave-style record became massively popular, and charted high on the playlists of influential DJs. Most of the Feedback Max records, including "Come Inside", were actually remixes of tracks that had been intended for the next Thompson Twins album. When "Come Inside" was issued as an official Thompson Twins release, the record was immediately ignored as it stalled at #56 in the UK Top 75 chart. Consequently, the British release of the album "Queer" was cancelled.

The album was released in the United States and Germany in September 1991. Perhaps inspired by the success of the UK white labels, Warner Brothers tried a similar approach in the States. Pre-release radio singles were shipped to station programmers in a paper zip-apart sleeve that said simply "Come Inside". In place of the artist's name, a question mark simply appeared, apparently in an attempt to get radio programmers to listen to the track without any expectations that might be associated with the name Thompson Twins. The official single was released but again was only successful on the Billboard Dance charts.

This modest success prompted Warner Brothers to issue a second single, "Groove On", despite the fact that remixes already existed for another album track, "Flower Girl". "Groove On" failed to make an impact. In 1992, the Thompson Twins appeared on the soundtrack for the Ralph Bakshi film "Cool World". The track was a mostly-instrumental piece titled "Play With Me", but was actually a remix of the song "Strange Jane" from "Queer". Warner Brothers then released the track as an official Thompson Twins single, now called "Play With Me (Jane)", but despite including a variety of mixes the "Cool World" version of the song did not even feature on it.

Following the release of "Queer", the band ultimately dropped the name Thompson Twins altogether and moved deeper into electronica with a new group "Babble". Two subsequent albums were released under this name "The Stone" and "Ether".

Track listing

#"Come Inside" - 3:58
#"Flower Girl" - 4:16
#"My Funky Valentine" - 3:22
#"Queer" - 3:19
#"Groove On" - 3:54
#"Strange Jane" - 4:00
#"Shake It Down" - 3:31
#"Wind It Up" - 4:17
#"Flesh And Blood" - 3:47
#"The Invisible Man" - 2:33
#"The Saint" - 4:33
#"Come Inside (Feedback Max Remix)" - 6:27