Jane from Occupied Europe explained

Jane from Occupied Europe
Type:	studio
Artist:	Swell Maps
Cover:	Janeinoccupiedeurope.jpg
Released:	16 August 1980
Recorded:	June 1979 – May 1980 (WMRS, Leamington Spa), except "Mining Villages" July 1977 ("at home"), "Epic's Trip" & "Big Empty Field (No. 2)" March 1980 (London)
Genre:	Post-punk
Length:	44:17
Producer:	Swell Maps
Prev Title:	A Trip to Marineville
Prev Year:	1979

Jane from Occupied Europe (stylised as ...In "Jane from Occupied Europe") is the second and final album by English post-punk band Swell Maps. It was released in 1980 by Rather Records and Rough Trade Records. In 1989, the album was reissued with eight bonus tracks by Mute Records.

The album title was adapted by a band eight years later, who told NME, "Swell Maps thought up some really great titles and, er… we just ripped it off."^[1]

Critical reception

In 2016, Paste ranked Jane from Occupied Europe at number 42 on its list of the best post-punk albums.^[2] In 2018, Pitchfork listed it as the 165th best album of the 1980s. Pitchforks Judy Berman wrote: "Swell Maps pasted mostly incomprehensible, drawled vocals into noisy, krautrock-inspired sound collages, straying further beyond the boundaries of any existing genre with each release. Their second album, Jane from Occupied Europe, marked the culmination of that trajectory. It was, most of all, a catalog of thrilling new sounds".^[3]

Track listing

Side one

1. "Robot Factory" (Epic Soundtracks, Biggles Books) – 2:27
2. "Let's Buy a Bridge" (Nikki Sudden) – 1:55
3. "Border Country" (Sudden) – 2:12
4. "Cake Shop" (retitled "Cake Shop Girl" on reissue) (Jowe Head) – 2:25
5. "The Helicopter Spies" (Nikki Sudden) – 4:20
6. "Big Maz in "The Desert from the Trolley"" (Swell Maps) – 5:11
7. "Big Empty Field" (Epic Soundtracks, Biggles Books) – 3:44
8. "Mining Villages" (Epic Soundtracks, Phones B. Sportsman) – 1:01

Side two

1. "Collision with a Frogman vs. The Mangrove Delta Plan" (Swell Maps) – 8:06
2. "Secret Island" (Nikki Sudden) – 4:34
3. "Whatever Happens Next...." (Nikki Sudden) – 2:58
4. "Blenheim Shots" (Nikki Sudden) – 3:42
5. "A Raincoat's Room" (retitled "Raining in My Room" on reissue) (Epic Soundtracks) – 1:42

Reissue bonus tracks

15. "Let's Build a Car" (Nikki Sudden) – 3:06
16. "Epic's Trip" (Eric Soundtracks) – 0:55
17. "...uh..." (Swell Maps) – 0:31
18. "Secret Island" (instrumental) (Nikki Sudden) – 6:27
19. "Amphitheatres" (Swell Maps) – 2:56
20. "Big Empty Field" (No. 2) (Epic Soundtracks, Biggles Books) – 2:59
21. "The Stairs are Like an Avalanche" (Swell Maps) – 4:04
22. "...then Poland" (Swell Maps) – 0:52
23. "New York" (Nikki Sudden) – 3:19

Personnel

• Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey) - Drums (1-7,9-12), Organ (1,10), Toys (1,6,7), Backing Vocals (2,5,10,11), Piano (3,6,9,13), Handclaps (5,9), Violin (6), Mumbling (6,13), Guitar (7), Saxophone (7), Concrete (8), Typewriter (8)
• Nikki Sudden (Adrian Godfrey) – Guitar (1-5,9-12), Toys (1,6), Vocals (2,3,5,10-12), Organ (4,12), Handclaps (5,9), Bass (6), Eiderdown (6), Mumbling (6), Piano (11)
• Jowe Head (Stephen Bird) – Guitar (1,4,7), Toys (1), Bass (2-5,9-11), Saxophone (2,7), Backing Vocals (2,3,10,11), Vocals (4), Pianoforte (6)
• Biggles Books (Richard Earl) – Organ (1), Toys (1,6), Guitar (2,4-7,9-12), Backing Vocals (2,10), Electric Guitar (3), Acoustic Guitar (3), Handclaps (5,9), Vocals (5,11), Mumbling (6), Bass (7)
• Phones B. Sportsman (David Barrington) – Guitar (5), Twelve String Guitar (6), Violin (6), Kazoo (8), Vocals (8), Handclaps (9), Backing Vocals (10)
• Golden Cockrill (John Cockrill) – Handclaps (5), Backing Vocals (5), Bass (12)
• Barry Gray – Organ (2)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Cloudberry Cake Proselytism » Blog Archive » :: Jane from Occupied Europe.
2. Web site: The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums . . 13 July 2016 . 24 November 2020.
3. Web site: The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s . . 10 September 2018 . 24 November 2020 . 2.