''Futurama'' is the second album by the band released in 1975 and generally classified musically as a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

album.

Background and recording

After the line-up of changed, the band recorded the album with founder member and (drums). The album was recorded at in Wales and produced by , who also produced

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Release

''Futurama'' was released in July 1975 by record label Harvest. Subsequently, in October 1976, reached number 36 in the UK singles charts as the lead track on the The American market was harder to break for British acts during the 1970s due to the hangover from the 1960s and problems with availability of records in the US for breaking acts such as , whose first album was only available as an import. The album was re-released in early 1991 with three bonus tracks.

Reception

Although critics were not always open to the mix of styles, and Nelson's music received a fairly warm welcome from the music critic of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. started his article with a fairly scathing dismissal of English musical acts:

"Every month or is it week? seems to bring a new rock band from Britain, eager to catch a few leftover crumbs from the Anglophilia of the 1960s. Most fail completely; others latch onto an FM cult success; a very few, unpredictably, make it big..."

Although his opening seems to dismiss British music as hanging on to fame gained during the 1960s, Rockwell goes on to say:

"Be-Bop Deluxe is redeemed by the brilliance of
he band's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
playing, and particularly Nelson's guitar playing. His records put Nelson right up there with the other great masters of the electric guitar."

In described the album as:

"Top-heavy with massed guitars and melodic ideas pursued on a whim and just as quickly abandoned, it nevertheless contained two of the most perfect pop singles never to make the charts – and

Q Magazine described the album as ' an accomplished melding of pomp, prog and pop'.

Track listing

Personnel

;Be-Bop Deluxe *

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flo ...

– guitar, lead and backing vocals, keyboards *

Charlie Tumahai Charles Turu Tumahai (14 January 1949 – 21 December 1995) was a New Zealand singer, bass player and songwriter who was a member of several noted rock groups in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. He is best known internationally as the bass ...

– Fender bass, backing vocals *

Simon Fox Simon Andrew David Fox (born 12 July 1949) is an English rock drummer, who played in different rock bands during the 1970s and the 1980s, most notably the progressive rock group Be-Bop Deluxe. His earliest band was Hackensack, during the 19 ...

– drums, percussion with: *Andy Evans - bass on "Jean Cocteau" *

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a Brass band (British style), brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the Coal mining, colliery, by members of the disbanded Cud ...

- brass band on "Music in Dreamland"; conducted by John Berryman; arranged by Sir Peter Oxendale ;Technical *Gary Lyons, Pat Moran - engineer *George Hardie - cover art, design

References

{{Authority control Be-Bop Deluxe albums 1975 albums Albums produced by Roy Thomas Baker Harvest Records albums Progressive rock albums by English artists Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios