''A Curious Feeling'' is the debut solo album from English keyboardist Tony Banks. It was recorded at

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group ...

Polar Music Polar Music is a Swedish record company founded in 1963 by Stig Anderson and his friend Bengt Bernhag. Background The first act that Polar Music signed was the Hootenanny Singers featuring Björn Ulvaeus. Polar eventually gained prosperity pr ...

Studios during a brief hiatus for Banks's main group

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

and released in 1979 on

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...

. It is one of only two of Banks' solo albums to have entered the UK Albums Chart, reaching 21 and staying on the chart for five weeks.David Roberts ''British Hit Singles and Albums'', Guinness World Records Limited. The album is a loose adaptation of the 1966

Daniel Keyes Daniel Keyes (August 9, 1927 – June 15, 2014) was an American writer who wrote the novel ''Flowers for Algernon''. Keyes was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000. Biography Early life ...

novel ''

Flowers for Algernon ''Flowers for Algernon'' is a short story by American author Daniel Keyes, later expanded by him into a novel and subsequently adapted for film and other media. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of '' ...

''. Its cover was designed by Hothouse and contains ''Wuluwait - Boatman of the Dead'' by Australian artist Ainslie Roberts. It was digitally remastered in 2009.

History

The instrumental piece "From the Undertow" was used in the 1978 British film ''

The Shout ''The Shout'' is a 1978 British horror film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It was based on a short story by Robert Graves and adapted for the screen by Skolimowski and Michael Austin. The film was the first to be produced by Jeremy Thomas under ...

'', for which Banks, with

Mike Rutherford Michael John Cloete Crawford Rutherford (born 2 October 1950) is an English guitarist, bassist and songwriter, co-founder of the rock band Genesis. Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks are the group's two continuous members. Initially servin ...

, composed the incidental music. No soundtrack of the film has been released. The piece was originally intended to be the intro to "Undertow" from the Genesis album '' ...And Then There Were Three...'' (hence the title). The album was re-released on 19 October 2009, remixed from the original masters by Nick Davis, who also created a 5.1 DTS 96/24 surround mix which is available on the second disc of the deluxe edition.

Reception

According to Banks himself, the album "got some extremely scathing reviews, I don't think they were fair" but he conceded "this was post-

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and this was really not the album that people wanted to hear".Interview with Tony Banks. ''

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Sc ...

's Sounds of the Seventies''. BBC Radio 2. 29 June 2014 ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

'' reviewer Jerry Ewing agrees with Banks, writing that the album is made of "lush pastoral English prog rock that deserved better at the time" and is probably the musician's best solo effort.

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 databa ...

gave a positive retrospective review, asserting that "Banks manages to capture the wonderment and allure that enveloped Genesis' Peter Gabriel days... yet he filters out the instrumental intricacies, unorthodox time signatures, and complex poetry which enveloped these works to create a milder but equally effective progressive realm ic" They praised the album for lacking the instrumental pretentiousness that most would have expected, instead focusing on strong progressive rock compositions.

Track listing

Personnel

* Tony Banks – keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion * Chester Thompson – drums, percussion * Kim Beacon – vocals

Production

* Tony Banks – producer * David Hentschel – producer, engineer * David Bascombe – engineer * Geoff Banks – equipment * Andy Mackrill – equipment * Dale Newman – equipment * Hothouse – design * Ainslie Roberts – cover painting

Charts

Album

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curious Feeling, A 1979 debut albums Tony Banks (musician) albums Albums produced by David Hentschel Albums produced by Tony Banks (musician) Caroline Records albums Charisma Records albums Albums recorded at Polar Studios