All the Rage (General Public album) explained

All the Rage
Type:studio
Artist:General Public
Cover:All the Rage.jpg
Border:yes
Recorded:1983 - 1984
Studio:
Genre:
Label:I.R.S.
Producer:
  • Colin Fairley
  • Gavin MacKillop
  • General Public
Next Title:Hand to Mouth
Next Year:1986

All the Rage is the debut studio album by English new wave band General Public, released in January 1984 by I.R.S. Records. It was recorded digitally.[1] After his expulsion from the Clash, Mick Jones was a founding member of General Public. Though he is listed in the credits of the album as a member, Jones left General Public part way through the recording process and was replaced by Kevin White. White's picture appears on the back cover; Jones' picture does not. Jones did play guitar on many of the album's tracks however, including "Tenderness". The album spent 39 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart and reached its peak position of No. 26 in mid-February 1985.[2] However, it failed to chart in their home country.

The eponymous track "General Public" was the first single released from the album, peaking at No. 60 on the UK Singles Chart in 1984.[3] Later in the year, the band fared even better in North America, where their second single "Tenderness" was a Top 30 hit in Canada (No. 11) and the US (No. 27). The song's success benefited from appearing in the John Hughes films Sixteen Candles (1984) and Weird Science (1985) from the time period, and it would later appear in Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995) and in the horror film Devil's Due (2014).

Critical reception

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Stewart Mason wrote of the album, "All the Rage is certainly an album of its time -- those weedy synth-drums on the otherwise kinda funky "As a Matter of Fact" are a dead giveaway that this was recorded in 1984—but it sounds less dated than many of its contemporaries due to Wakeling's keen songwriting skills."

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Hot You're Cool" (Mickey Billingham, Roger Charlery, Horace Panter, Dave Wakeling)  - 3:47
  2. "Tenderness" (Billingham, Charlery, Wakeling)  - 3:34
  3. "Anxious" (Charlery, Wakeling)  - 4:19
  4. "Never You Done That" (Billingham, Charlery, Wakeling)  - 4:08
  5. "Burning Bright" (Billingham, Charlery, Wakeling)  - 4:30

Side two

  2. "As a Matter of Fact" (Billingham, Charlery, Panter, Wakeling)  - 5:22
  3. "Are You Leading Me On?" (Charlery, Panter, Wakeling)  - 3:09
  4. "Day-to-Day" (Charlery, Wakeling)  - 3:28
  5. "Where's the Line?" (Billingham, Charlery, Panter, Wakeling)  - 4:09
  6. "General Public" (Charlery, Wakeling)  - 4:22

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the All the Rage liner notes.[4]

General Public

Additional musicians

Technical

Notes and References

  1. Book: Canale. Larry. Waryncia. Lou. 1986. Digital Audio's Guide to Compact Discs. Bantam Books. 56.
  2. Web site: Billboard 200: February 16, 1985 . 2016 . . Billboard.com . August 7, 2016.
  3. Book: Roberts , David . 2006. British Hit Singles & Albums. 19th. Guinness World Records Limited . London. 1-904994-10-5. 224.
  4. All the Rage. General Public. 1984. I.R.S. Records. CD booklet.

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