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==Charts==
==Charts and certifications==
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===Weekly charts===
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Chart performance for ''Free Peace Sweet''
|+Chart performance for ''Free Peace Sweet''

|-
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1996)
! scope="col"| Chart (1996)
! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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{{album chart|UK2|7|date=19960623|rowheader=true|refname=UKchart}}
{{album chart|UK2|7|date=19960623|rowheader=true|refname=UKchart}}
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|}
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===Certifications===
{{Certification Table Top|caption=Certifications for ''Free Peace Sweet''}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=album|artist=Dodgy|title=Free Peace Sweet|accessdate=27 February 2022|relyear=1996|certyear=1996|award=Platinum|id=2387-100-2|refname=UKcert}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}
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==References==
==References==

Revision as of 12:32, 27 February 2022

Free Peace Sweet
Studio album by
Dodgy
Released17 June 1996
Studio
GenreBritpop
Length64:28
LabelA&M
ProducerHugh Jones
Dodgy chronology
Homegrown
(1994) 		Free Peace Sweet
(1996) 		Real Estate
(2001)
Singles from Free Peace Sweet
  1. "In a Room"
    Released: 27 May 1996
  2. "Good Enough"
    Released: 29 July 1996
  3. "If You're Thinking of Me"
    Released: 4 November 1996
  4. "Found You"
    Released: 3 March 1997

Free Peace Sweet is the third studio album by English rock band Dodgy. The track "Homegrown" was given the same name as the band's previous album.

Background and recording

Dodgy released their second studio album Homegrown in October 1994.[1] It peaked at number 28 on the UK Albums Chart; all of its singles peaked within the UK top 40, with an alternative version of "Staying Out for the Summer" reaching the highest at number 19.[2] The album was promoted with a UK tour at the end of 1994, and constant touring throughout 1995.[1][3] Free Peace Sweet was produced by Hugh Jones at Wessex Sound Studios in London with engineer Robin Evans.[4] They picked this studio so that Clark could return to his family each night.[5]

While Homegrown was recorded with a basic band set up, for Free Peace Sweet, they used different methods of recording.[6] For "Ain't No Longer Asking", this meant set up with a PA system, playing the drum track through this and recording the output.[7] Additional recording was done at Battery and Orinoco Studios, both which served as the mixing locations for the recordings. Jones did the mixes with engineer Helen Woodward, before the album was mastered by Ian Cooper at Metropolis Studios with digital editing done by Crispin Murray.[4]

Composition and lyrics

Free Peace Sweet is a Britpop album that takes influence from the works of Beastie Boys, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Dr. John.[8] Long-term live member Richard Payne contributed keyboards throughout the album. Jerome de Pietro did additional programming and remixing on interlude pieces and "Intro". An ensemble of brass players, under the name The Kick Horns, appeared on "In a Room", "Good Enough", "Jack the Lad" and "Homegrown". They consisted of Tim Sanders, Neil Sidwell, Roddy Lorimer and Simon Clarke. Janet Ramus and Michele Douglas sung additional vocals on "You've Gotta Look Up", "If You're Thinking of Me" and "Prey for Drinking". Nick Ingman arranged the strings that are heard on "If You're Thinking of Me", "One of Those Rivers" and "Long Life".[4]

"In a Room" originally had a slower tempo, giving the song Neil Young-esque feel to it, until one of the members suggested playing it faster.[6] Both it and "Trust in Time" incorporate influence from the work of the Who.[9] The band came up with the drum pattern for "You've Gotta Look Up" after visiting a go-go club.[6] Miller theorised that the vibraphone solo, which was performed by Teena Lyle, might have been inspired by "A Girl Like You" (1994) by Edwyn Collins.[4][6] The track was an example of Clark coming up with the chorus and version lyrics and Priest would help finish them; Miller said this happened previously with the Homegrown songs "Making the Most Of..." and "So Let Me Go Far". The final version of "Good Enough" evolved from a demo that Clark made, which featured a Lee Dorsey loop. Priest came up with the drum pattern during a break at Wessex Sound Studios, which Clark, Miller and Jones overheard. They promptly expanded on this to a full song.[6]

Discussing "One of Those Rivers", Miller said when they were driving through Scotland, their tour manager would take an alternate route via Northumberland. On one occasion, Priest commented on the view he was witnessing; Clark wrote some words down and showed Priest a few months later. He came up with the first verse of what would become "One of Those Rivers", with Priest writing the other verses.[5] Tim Kent of the Rockingbirds contributed banjo to the song.[4] "Prey for Drinking", "Jack the Lad" and "Long Life" form a musical suite. "Jack the Lad" dated from five years prior, when their manager once sent the band to a farmhouse in Hendre-Ddu, Wales, where they came up with the basic form of the song.[7]

Miller thought Clark had his first child in mind when writing "Long Life", alongside Animal Farm (1944) by George Orwell. "U.K.R.I.P." retreads the lyrical theme of "Grand Old English Oak Tree" from their debut studio album The Dodgy Album (1993), with an emphasis on what Miller saw as "trying to distance ourselves from the jingoistic, xenophobic bullshit that Britpop was throwing up". He thought they were evoking the Clash "via Future Sound of London and maybe Senser". Priest wrote the song's chorus and second verse, while Clark wrote the first verse. "Homegrown" was written before the band's album of the same name and did not fit within the rest of that material. They had previously recorded a version of the song at the Tardis studio in Liverpool; as they were unable to replicate of it during the Free Peace Sweet sessions, they opted to take portions of that original recording.[5]

Release

"In a Room" was released as a single on 27 May 1996.[10] The 7-inch vinyl version included "Out Clubbing", while the CD version featured "Self Doubt", an acoustic version of "Long Life" and a remix of "U.K.R.I.P." renamed "Jungle UK (No Rest in Peace)", which was done by Pietro and Phil Mossman.[11][12] Free Peace Sweet was released on 17 June 1996 through A&M Records.[13][14] The artwork features a tree, which is a reference to "Grand Old English Oak Tree".[8] The vinyl version has two extra songs: "Is It Me" and "Grateful Moon". The album's title is a pun on three-piece suite. Mercury Records was planning on releasing the album in the US in March 1997, before being pushed back to May to eventually being shelved.[14] Dodgy's co-manager Dave Crompton commented that Mercury planned on releasing a single first but the band was against it, saying: "We think their attitude was, 'We'll put it out and see what happens,' and we said, 'We want to have a career. We've got one in England and Europe, and we want one in the U.S. as well.'"[14] The band eventually parted ways with Mercury. Crompton and partner Andrew Winters were aiming to find a new label to release the album in the summer.[14]

Between July and September 1996, the band embarked on The Summer Big Top Trip tour across the UK.[15] "Good Enough" was released as a single on 29 July 1996.[16] The 7-inch vinyl version included "Nutters", while the CD version featured "Speaking in Tongues" and "Lovebirds on Katovit".[17][18] The music video for "Good Enough" was planned to be filmed in India, before it was ultimately shot in Jamaica.[6] "If You're Thinking of Me" was released as a single on 4 November 1996.[19] The 7-inch vinyl version included a live acoustic version of "In a Room", while the CD version featured "Pebblemilljam", "Forever Remain" and an alternative version of "Good Enough".[20][21] The music video for "If You're Thinking of Me" was filmed in Malta in a pool that was set up specially for filming.[6] "Found You" was released as a single on 3 March 1997; "You've Gotta Look Up" was in the running to be the fourth single, until "Found You" was ultimately chosen.[6][22] The 7-inch vinyl version included a cover of the Small Faces' song "I Can't Make It" (1967) and a cover of the Beatles' "Revolution" (1968), while the CD version featured "I Can't Make It", a live version of "Stand by Yourself" and an alternative version of "Found You".[23][24] The music video for "Found You" was filmed in Andorra and centred around snowboarding.[7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[25]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[26]
NME7/10[8]

Free Peace Sweet was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. In a review for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine found Free Peace Sweet to not be as "consistently engaging" as its predecessor, and while the their "style is beginning to sound a bit formulaic," he could not deny that they had an "infectious, exciting sound that makes the similarities between their albums forgivable".[25] NME writer Paul Moody thought it was an "exact DNA progression" from their previous two releases; he noted that while there was a variety of musical influences, the album "never threatens to be anything other than a superior example of Bandus Britpopus".[8] Kevin Courtney of The Irish Times said the band had "traded in their fried out old transit van in a hid to get a seat on the bright, shiny Britpop bus, and there's no longer a faint whiff of Crust wafting in the air around them".[9] In his collection The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin considered it a "solid album containing some memorable songs", though it "fell short of the greatness that many had expected".[26]

Free Peace Sweet charted at number seven in the UK.[27] By March 1997, the album had sold 400,000 copies in the UK.[14] All of its singles charted highly in the UK: "In a Room" at number 12, "Good Enough" at number four, "If You're Thinking of Me" at number 11 and "Found You" at number 19.[2] Select ranked Free Peace Sweet at number five on their best albums of year, and "Good Enough" at number ten on their list of the best songs of the year.[28][29]

Track listing

All songs written by Nigel Clark, Mathew Priest and Andy Miller.[4]

  1. "Intro" – 0:47
  2. "In a Room" – 4:15
  3. "Trust in Time" – 2:41
  4. "You've Gotta Look Up" – 5:29
  5. "If You're Thinking of Me" – 5:53
  6. "Good Enough" – 4:01
  7. "Ain't No Longer Asking" – 6:04
  8. "Found You" – 4:54
  9. "One of Those Rivers" – 7:43
  10. "Prey for Drinking" – 3:07
  11. "Jack the Lad" – 3:40
  12. "Long Life" – 4:47
  13. "U.K.R.I.P." – 5:08
  14. "Homegrown" – 5:52

Personnel

Personnel per booklet.[4]

Charts and certifications

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Dodgy Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Dodgy | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  3. ^ Miller 2022, p. 38
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Free Peace Sweet (booklet). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 540 573 - 2 [11]/540 573 - 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  5. ^ a b c Miller 2022, p. 27
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Miller 2022, p. 25
  7. ^ a b c Miller 2022, p. 26
  8. ^ a b c d Moody, Paul. "Dodgy Free Peace Sweet". NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  9. ^ a b Courtney, Kevin (26 July 1996). "Rock". The Irish Times. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  10. ^ "Dodgy - In A Room". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  11. ^ "In a Room" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 624-7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  12. ^ "In a Room" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 625 - 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  13. ^ "Advert". Select (68). July 1996. ISSN 0959-8367.
  14. ^ a b c d e Newman 1997, p. 16
  15. ^ Miller 2022, p. 11
  16. ^ "Dodgy - Good Enough". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  17. ^ "Good Enough" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 814-7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  18. ^ "Good Enough" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 815-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  19. ^ "Dodgy - If You're Thinking of Me". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  20. ^ "If You're Thinking of Me" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 998-7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  21. ^ "If You're Thinking of Me" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1996. 581 999-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  22. ^ "Dodgy - Found You". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  23. ^ "Found You" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1997. 582 132-7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  24. ^ "Found You" (sleeve). Dodgy. A&M Records. 1997. 582 133-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  25. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Free Peace Sweet - Dodgy / Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  26. ^ a b Larkin 2006, pp. 734–5
  27. ^ a b "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  28. ^ "What... No Bluetones?". Select (74): 93. January 1997. ISSN 0959-8367.
  29. ^ "...Or Bis?!". Select (74). January 1997. ISSN 0959-8367.
  30. ^ "British album certifications – Dodgy – Free Peace Sweet". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 27 February 2022.

Sources

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