release date: Apr. 1989
format: digital (11 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: David Kershenbaum, Paul McKenna
label: RCA - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Swimming Against the Stream" - 2. "Blameless" - 4. "Model Son" - 5. "After Maralinga" - 6. "Dominion" - 10. "It Makes My Heart Stop Speaking"
3rd studio album by Latin Quarter following a little more than two years after Mick and Caroline (Jan. '87). Since then, the band has been reduced to a quartet consisting of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Steve Skaith, lead guitarist Richard Wright, bassist Greg Harewood and keyboardist & vocalist Yona Dunsford, while songwriter Mike Jones still 'only' delivers the lyrics to the music, which is all credited Skaith. On this, we notice the contributions by David Lindley on guitar, banjo and mandolin, Denny Fongheiser on drums, Tony Waerea on didgeridoo, Judy Gameral on dulcimer, and Paulinho Da Costa as percussionist. James Swinson is responsibe for the cover art, just as he has been on the band's former albums.
Musically, not much has happened since the debut Modern Times from '85. Latin Quarter narrates about the usual subjects and the style is held tight in melodic pop / rock with bits and inspiration from pop reggae and folk. In that way you don't really notice a progression, where the small variations may lie in the fact that Jones writes the lyrics - and they do tend to touch on naiivity - be it deliberate or not. To summarise, this isn't entirely bad - it does contain good tracks but also songs that echo some sort of recycling. Even though it appears as quite coherent, it isn't exactly great. It's good craftsmanship and then perhaps not much more.
The band's debut arguably raised some recognition, the second album was positively notised especially in Germany, Sweden and in Switzerland, whereas this doesn't seem to have been welcomed that well. I haven't been able to find any registered positions from Britain, and in Germany and Sweden the album reached positions as number 38 and 50 respectively on the album chart lists. This progression has continued the following years, where none of the band's releases have led to positions, anywhere. Latin Quarter where inactive from '97 until 2010, but since then and onwards to 2021, they have released another seven albums.
