Laminar Flow (album) explained

Laminar Flow
Type:Album
Artist:Roy Orbison
Cover:Laminar Flow - Roy Orbison.jpg
Released:1979
Recorded:February 1979
Genre:Disco, rock, pop
Length:34:20
Label:Asylum
Producer:Clayton Ivey, Terry Woodford
Prev Title:Regeneration
Prev Year:1976
Next Title:Class of '55
Next Year:1986

Laminar Flow is an album by the American musician Roy Orbison.[1] It was recorded at Wishbone Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and released in 1979 by Asylum Records. It was the last album of new material Orbison would release in his lifetime. His next studio effort, In Dreams, featured re-recordings of old Orbison hits while Mystery Girl and King of Hearts, his final collections of all-new material, were released posthumously. "Hound Dog Man" is a tribute to Elvis Presley.[2]

Critical reception

The Globe and Mail wrote that "Laminar Flow is a travesty: disco, fake disco and fake California rock form the backgrounds while poor Roy (who still sings well) flounders atop with absolutely no confidence."[3] The Los Angeles Times called it "a collection of easy-listening pop that shows the Orbison pipes to be in glorious form."[4]

Track listing

Side One
  1. "Easy Way Out" – (Jim Valentini, Frank Saulino, Spady Brannan)
  2. "Love Is a Cold Wind" – (Charlie Black, Rory Bourke)
  3. "Lay It Down" – (Robert Byrne, Tommy Brasfield)
  4. "I Care" – (Lenny LeBlanc, Eddie Struzick)
  5. "We're Into Something Good" – (George Soulé, Terry Woodford)
  6. "Movin'" – (Roy Orbison, Chris Price)
Side Two
  1. "Poor Baby" – (Roy Orbison, Chris Price, Regi Price)
  2. "Warm Spot Hot" – (Eddie Struzick)
  3. "Tears" – (Roy Orbison, Chris Price, Dan Price, Regi Price)
  4. "Friday Night" – (Regi Price, Chris Price)
  5. "Hound Dog Man" – (Barbara Orbison, Terry Woodford, Tommy Stuart)

Personnel

Notes and References

  1. News: Morse . Steve . Orbison on Preciously Few Records . The Boston Globe . 11 Dec 1988 . B10.
  2. Robins . Wayne . Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll . Billboard . Dec 6, 2008 . 120 . 49 . 35.
  3. News: McGrath . Paul . Laminar Flow Roy Orbison . The Globe and Mail . 28 July 1979 . F4.
  4. News: McKenna . Kristine . Caruso of Rock Ready to Rescale the Charts . Los Angeles Times . 26 May 1979 . Part II . 10.