''Cradle'' is the only album by the English pop group

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

, which featured future record producer

Guy Sigsworth Guy Sigsworth is an English record producer and songwriter. During his career, he has worked with many artists, including Seal, Björk, Goldie, Madonna, Britney Spears, Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, Bebel Gilberto, Mozez, David Sylvian, Alanis M ...

(

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...

, others) and singer Alexander "Blackmoth" Nilere. It is notable for being the first full album released by Sigsworth as both full group member and producer (following his work as keyboard player with Björk and Seal) and for being the first record to heavily feature later solo artist

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Heap (born 9 December 1977) is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music. Heap classically trained in piano, cello and clarinet starting at ...

(who performs on all but one track).

Details and history

The majority of the album was recorded by Sigsworth and Nilere (with Heap as backing singer and constant musical foil, although not a full band member). Two Acacia live musicians (Luca Ramelli and Eshan K) were also credited as part of the band. Two former Acacia live members (Maurizio Anzalone and Ansuman Biswas) actually performed on more of the album tracks than their successors did, but had left the band by the time of the album releases and were therefore credited only as guest musicians. Much of the album's guitar playing was in fact generated by Sigworth's sampler. The album also features appearances from Colette Meury (Choc Electrique), Loretta Haywood (L.a.z.y.), Ragnhildur "Ragga" Gísladóttir ( Tricky, Ragga & The Jack Magic Orchestra), Steve Mack (

That Petrol Emotion That Petrol Emotion were a London-based Northern Ireland-originating band with an American vocalist, Steve Mack. It featured the O'Neill brothers from celebrated Derry pop-punk band The Undertones plus ex-members of fellow Derry bands Bam Bam and ...

) and Andrew Tumi (later known as "One" and as part of

Supafly Supafly (also known as Supafly Inc.) are an English dance act, composed of Panos Liassi (Mister P) and Andrew Tumi (wOne). Musical career Supafly is best known for 2005's "Let's Get Down", which was a club hit around the world and used by the ...

). ''Cradle'' was released in 1997 but almost immediately withdrawn due to legal disputes between Warner Music UK and the band's former label Radar Records (although some copies of the album did arrive in the shops and were sold).Account of band history
MySpace.com, retrieved January 30, 2009 Fifteen years later in 2012, the band had regained rights to the album and it was re-released via

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

in May 2012 (followed by an iTunes reissue of the "Maddening Shroud" single in September).

Track listing

Cover versions

"I'm in Love with Love" is a cover version of a song by the British hard rock/funk band The Holiday Patrons (originally released as the B-side to their 1984 debut single "Hottest Time of the Year"). " The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" is a cover version of a

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. Since then ...

song from the 1994 album ''

Vauxhall and I ''Vauxhall and I'' is the fourth studio album by English alternative rock musician Morrissey. It was released on 14 March 1994, by the record label Parlophone in the UK and Sire/Reprise in the US. Background The album's title may be a refer ...

'' (the original version was also a number 8 hit single in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

during 1994) "Maddening Shroud" was later covered by Frou Frou, the pop duo set up by Sigsworth and Imogen Heap (the song appears on the lone Frou Frou album ''Details'').

Personnel

Acacia: *Alexander Nilere - voice *

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

; sampler; guitar facsimile ''(synthesized guitar)'' on all tracks except "Maddening Shroud", "Hate", "You Nothing" & "Wire"; piano on "You Nothing" & "Wire" *Luca Ramelli - guitar on "I'm in Love with Love" & "Maddening Shroud" *Eshan K ( Eshan Khadaroo) - drums on "I'm in Love with Love" and *Ansuman Biswas -

berimbau The berimbau () is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, originally from Africa, that is now commonly used in Brazil. The berimbau would eventually be incorporated into the practice of the Afro-Brazilian martial art ''capoeira'' ...

ektara Ektara ( bn, একতারা, hi, एकतारा, ur, اِک تارا, ne, एकतारे, pa, ਇਕ ਤਾਰਾ, ta, எக்டரா; literally 'one-string', also called actara, iktar, ektar, yaktaro, gopichand, gopichant, ...

& toys on "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get",

santoor The Indian santoor instrument is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer, and a variation of the Iranian santur. The instrument is generally made of walnut and has 25 bridges. Each bridge has 4 strings, making for a total of 100 strings. It is a ...

on "Unfulfilled Desire",

cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

s & bells &

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

on "Yellow is the Colour of My Cowardice" *Maurizio Anzalone - guitar on " The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get", "Sway", "Unfulfilled Desire", "Sympathy", "Hate", "Boils Down to Money" & "Woe Woe Song" Guest musicians: *

- backing vocals on all tracks except "Wire" *Colette Meury - backing vocals on "Wired" & "Yellow is the Colour of My Cowardice" *Ragga (Ragnhildur Gísladóttir) - backing vocals on "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" *Loretta Heywood - backing vocals on "Maddening Shroud" * Andrew Tumi - backing vocals on "You Nothing" *Lisa Ferguson - violin on "Unfulfilled Desire" *Steve Mack - guitar on "Yellow is the Colour of My Cowardice"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cradle 1997 albums Albums produced by Guy Sigsworth