''Hard Reyne'' is the second solo album by Australian singer/songwriter
James Reyne
James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian rock musician and singer-songwriter both in solo work and, until 1986, with the band Australian Crawl.
Biography
Early years
Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Ro ...
. It was released in May 1989 and peaked at number 7 on the
ARIA Charts
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
. The album produced four singles, "
House of Cards
A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an Expression (language), expression that dates back to ...
", "
One More River
''One More River'' is a 1934 American drama film mystery directed by James Whale. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starred Colin Clive, Diana Wynyard and stage actress Mrs Patrick Campbell in one of her very few films. T ...
", "Trouble in Paradise" and "Harvest Moon".
Review
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 ...
said; "Further collaboration with Simon Hussey finds Reyne treading water to some degree, trying to replicate the success of his debut, while lacking the fury and energy that made that album so utterly compelling. "One More River" and "Wake Up Deadman" share a more traditionally bluesy feel, while "House Of Cards" tries to echo the intensity of earlier classics. A mellower, less surprising effort. ''Hard Reyne'' is not a bad album by any means, there is just nothing here to render it great."
Track listing
#"
House of Cards
A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an Expression (language), expression that dates back to ...
" (James Reyne, Simon Hussey) – 4:26
#"Rumour" (Reyne, Hussey) – 3:32
#"No Such Thing as Love" (Reyne, Hussey) – 4:32
#"
One More River
''One More River'' is a 1934 American drama film mystery directed by James Whale. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starred Colin Clive, Diana Wynyard and stage actress Mrs Patrick Campbell in one of her very few films. T ...
" (Reyne) – 4:01
#"Shine On" (Reyne, Hussey) – 5:39
#"Harvest Moon" (Reyne, Hussey) – 4:14
#"Lamp of Heaven" (Reyne, Hussey) – 3:19
#"Drifting Away (Confusion of Slow Novas)" (Reyne, Hussey) – 3:37
#"Trouble in Paradise" (Reyne, Mark Grieg) – 4:08
#"Five Miles Closer to the Sun" (Reyne, Hussey) – 4:37
#"Wake Up Dead Man" (Reyne, Hussey) – 3:43
Personnel
* Judy Cheeks – backing vocals (track 4)
* Sony Southon – backing vocals (tracks 5, 7 and 9)
* Andy Cichon – bass
* John Watson – drums
* James Ralston – guitar (tracks: 1 to 5, 9)
* Simon Hussey – keyboards, sequencer programming, congas
* Ollie Marland – piano (track 6)
* Gary Barnacle – saxophone (tracks 1 and 4)
* John Thirkell – trumpet (track 1)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
1989 albums
James Reyne albums
Capitol Records albums
{{1980s-rock-album-stub