Titanic Days (1993 CD)

Titanic Days (1993 CD) front cover
Titanic Days (1993 CD) front cover

“I want to shake up this world and not to feel so useless, and I long to wake up happy and not to feel so hopeless …” Kirsty MacColl lays out her despair in defiance of the sprightly backing track. This is not a happy album, but its bitter pills are wrapped in beautiful arrangements and defiantly catchy hooks.

The atmosphere recording these new songs was very different from ‘Electric Landlady’. The whole thing was made without a record deal, and it was only when it was finished that it was picked up by ZTT. Her relationship with Steve was increasingly difficult and she ended up making the record with Vic van Vugt, an Australian/ Dutch producer who worked with Nick Cave. It was recorded mostly in the little home studio in Ealing to save money, and “everyone played on the basis that they’d get paid when we got a deal, which was great.” She spent only a couple of days with the band at Townhouse, where they put all the backing tracks down, ‘live’. While it could have all been done at home with computers, but as Kirsty insisted: “I need human people around about. It’s more fun. You need musicians there to tell the jokes.” The players on this album were from her live band: Dave Ruffy on drums, Gary Tibbs on bass, Jamie West Oram and Mark Nevin on guitars. Pete Glenister added some overdubs at the end.

Titanic Days (1993 CD) back cover
Titanic Days (1993 CD) back cover
Titanic Days (1993 CD) disc
Titanic Days (1993 CD) disc