''2WO'' is the second
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Canadian
new wave band
Strange Advance
Strange Advance is a Canadian new wave band formed in 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were nominated for a 1983 Juno Award as Most Promising Group of the Year and again in 1985 as Group of the Year. Their first two albums, 1982's ' ...
released in February, 1985. It featured two hit Canadian singles, "We Run" and "The Second That I Saw You". Along with their first album, this was a Canadian gold record for the band.
Background and writing
This recording features heavy use of keyboards and synthesizers including the
Fairlight,
Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units.
In the early 1980 ...
, and
Jupiter 8
The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981.
The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Approximately 3300 units have ...
.
Recalling the inspiration behind the hit song "We Run", Drew Arnott said it was "one of those 'wake up sweating' dreams. I just described what I saw. The smallest things can be the most inspiring. Ed Shaw added a delay to a sound in "We Run" which made the whole track come alive for me. Major bow to Michael Kamen for the strings and Scott Litt (REM) for the mix."
One song written during the ''2WO'' sessions but left off the record was "Lady with a Blade", which would later appear on the 1995 compilation album ''Worlds Away & Back''.
Critical reception
Tomas Mureika of
allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
calls ''2WO'' "A seriously overlooked album".
Track listing
Album credits
Personnel
* Darryl Kromm – lead vocals, guitar
* Drew Arnott – keyboards, drums, vocals, lead vocal on "We Run"
with:
*
Ken "Spider" Sinnaeve – bass
*
Gerald O'Brien
John Gerald O’Brien (2 December 1924 – 13 December 2017), known as Gerald O'Brien, was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Early life
O'Brien was born in Wellington on 2 December 1924, the son of John Thomas O'Brien, and was ed ...
– keyboards and arrangement assistance
* Howard Ayee – bass on "We Run", "The Second That I Saw You"
* Dawnlee Tait – backing vocals
*
Andy Bown
Andrew Steven Bown (born 27 March 1946) is an English musician, who has specialised in keyboards and bass guitar. He is a member of the rock band Status Quo.
Career
Bown's first major band was The Herd, along with Peter Frampton. After The H ...
– 12 string guitar; bass on "Running Away"
* Ed Shaw – guitar
*
– drums on "Running Away"
*
Earl Slick
Earl Slick (born Frank Madeloni in Brooklyn, New York, October 1, 1952) is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim ...
– guitar on "Running Away"
* David Roberts – backing vocals
*
Steve Sexton
Steve Sexton is a Canadian composer, arranger, musical director, producer and keyboardist. He served as Canadian singer Anne Murray's Musical Director for 25 years with responsibilities as her pianist, conductor, arranger, and on occasion her p ...
– keyboards on "We Run"
*
Keith Scott – guitars
* Chitose Ishikura –
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
voiceover on "The Second That I Saw You"
* Chris Arnott – Gaelic voiceover
* Kevin Markland – percussion
* Laura Oldham –
slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
*
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician.
Biography Early life
Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...
– oboe, keyboards, vocal effect on "I'll Be the One to Cry"
*
Domenic Troiano
Domenic Michele Antonio Troiano (January 17, 1946 – May 25, 2005) was a Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of Mandala, Bush, James Gang, and The Guess Who. He also recorded music for film and television, often made guest a ...
– guitar on "The Second That I Saw You"
* Tony Lester – guitar
* Simon Brierley – lead guitar
* John Jones – piano
* Ericka Goodman – harp
*
Bernie LaBarge
Bernie LaBarge (born March 11, 1953) is a Canadian performing and session guitarist, an award-winning singer and songwriter, and producer, who has gone on tour and made recordings with Canadian and international artists.
In a wide-ranging care ...
– backing vocals
* John Forbes,
Jean Piche, Dee Long, Drew Arnott –
Fairlight programming
Production
* Drew Arnott –– producer
* Michael Kamen – producer of "Nor Crystal Tears", string arrangements on "We Run"
* Remixing – Scott Litt; Drew Arnott &
Lenny DeRose
Lenny DeRose is a studio engineer and music producer who has been credited on several recordings dating back to the early 1980s.
As an engineer, he has been credited for his work on several film soundtracks, including ''Naked in New York'', ''9½ ...
on "Nor Crystal Tears"
* Engineering – Lenny DeRose, Andy Jackson, Dave Oglivie, Dee Long,
Scott Litt
Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most suc ...
* Mastering –
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...
, Masterdisk, New York
References
;Citations
;Other
*
{{Authority control
1985 albums
Strange Advance albums
Capitol Records albums