Fans of PLENTY have waited three decades for a new release from the band that was formed in 1986 from the remnants of the eccentric Liverpool-based Post-Punk ensemble A BETTER MOUSETRAP and the Art Rockers from Warrington, AFTER THE STRANGER, and is the immediate predecessor to Tim Bowness NO-MAN band. This week they have made two tracks from the upcoming album It Could Be Home available. One is a single release for the track Hide and the other is a lyric video for the track Every Stranger’s Voice.
Of Every Stranger’s Voice Bowness has this to say:
“Every Stranger’s Voice” was one of the last songs written by Plenty during its first incarnation and dates from 1990. It’s one of the grand, doomed romantic ballads that partly defined Plenty and early No-Man. I always felt it was one of the strongest songs we’d come up with, but it had the misfortune of emerging in the month that No-Man got its first record and publishing deals so was abandoned very shortly after being written. Michael Bearpark’s searing solo on the track is a real highlight for me. Bob Hodds atmospheric video ambiguously captures the emotional force of nature that drives the lyric”.
The video by Bob Hodds for Every Stranger’s Voice can be seen HERE
With regard to the single Hide, Bowness went on to say:
“Hide” is one of the few Plenty pieces that betrays the band’s origins as part of the thriving Liverpool Post-Punk/Art Pop scene of the 1980s. It was written in 1987 and was an important part of the live performances we did at the time. All two of them! I always liked the fact that the song itself hid a dark lyric about mental illness and the desire for retreat behind a jaunty and propulsive musical facade. As I croon about someone’s tragic decline and stasis, Brian and David’s playing exudes something joyous and surprising. The lyric was inspired by a friend who also provided part of the inspiration behind No-Man’s Animal Ghost”.
Hide is available from all the usual streaming and download services details of which can be found at https://phonofile.link/hide
It Could Be Home is a debut release over thirty years in the making. Emerging from the ashes of Liverpool-based Post- Punk eccentrics A Better Mousetrap and Warringtonian Art Rock band After The Stranger, Plenty formed in 1986 and was Tim Bowness’s immediate pre-no-man band.
Distinctively echoing then contemporary artists such as The Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout – alongside the iconic likes of David Bowie and Peter Gabriel – Plenty’s music alternated between electro-pop anthems, poignant ballads and ambient experiments and was unheard at the time beyond two North West performances and a handful of plays on local radio stations such as Piccadilly Radio, BBC GMR, BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio City.
Between Spring 2016 and Summer 2017, founder members Tim Bowness, Brian Hulse and David K Jones re-recorded Plenty’s catalogue of 1980s songs and set about completing the album the band had hoped to release three decades previously. Whilst re-writing some lyrics and streamlining elements of the songs’ arrangements, the band remained faithful to both the spirit of the original recordings and the era in which the songs were written.
Showcasing the origins of styles that subsequently became Bowness and no-man trademarks, It Could Be Home also reveals different sides to Bowness’s vocals, as Jones’s powerful bass playing and Hulse’s inventive guitar parts and pulsating electronics push Bowness into territories he’s rarely explored since the 1980s. The Rolling Stones’ As Tears Go By is given a radical synth-heavy overhaul, Hide and Climb possess a driving Post-Punk energy, while pieces like Foolish Waking and Strange Gods anticipate the timeless atmospheric melancholy of Bowness music to come. The Good Man – the band’s first new song in 27 years – provides a seamless link between Plenty’s past and the present.
It Could Be Home was mixed and instrumentally augmented by Norwegian producer Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow, The Opium Cartel).
Mastered by The Pineapple Thief’s Steve Kitch, the album also features contributions from former Plenty guitarist Michael Bearpark, pianist Peter Chilvers (Brian Eno, Karl Hyde) and no-man violinist Steve Bingham. A lost Art Pop treasure well and truly found.
Tracklist
01. As Tears Go By
02. Hide
03. Never Needing
04. Broken Nights
05. Foolish Waking
06. Strange Gods
07. Every Stranger’s Voice
08. Climb
09. The Good Man
10. It Could Be Home
For more information:
https://www.weareplenty.com
https://www.karismarecords.no
