''The Holy Pictures'' is a 2008 studio album by David Holmes. The album departs from the eclectic soundtrack-to-an-imaginary-film style of his previous studio albums, in favour of a more personal approach. It was

nominated A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

for the 2008 Choice Music Prize, awarded to the best Irish album of the year. The tracks "I Heard Wonders" and "Holy Pictures" were released as singles.

Critical reception

The album has garnered generally favourable reviews, and is seen as a successful departure from its predecessors. Thom Jurek, writing for

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 ...

, called it "engaging, at times stunning", praising the pop aesthetic of the upbeat songs, while remarking that "there is that sadness at this album's heart that draws one in; it doesn't feel like mope or exorcism, just personal".

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

added that the closing three songs "seek to recapture a certain back-to-the-womb comfort... and prove an affecting come-down to the preceding songs' sunglasses-at-night swagger". Both critics praised the final song, "The Ballad of Sarah and Jack", referring to it as "gorgeous" and "unspeakably somber". Jurek also favoured the opener, "I Heard Wonders", calling it a "killer track". The album was seen as reflecting many influences, most notably

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they rele ...

(particularly

Jim Reid James McLeish Reid (born 29 December 1961) is a Scottish singer/songwriter and the lead singer for the alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain, which he formed with his elder brother and guitarist William Reid in 1983. Career The Jes ...

's vocal style),

Primal Scream Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums) ...

and

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

in its upbeat songs and

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

in its "warm production" and "limpid, wistful instrumentals".

Appearances in other media

The track "Love Reign Over Me" is featured on the episode "Freddie" (series 3, episode 5) of the UK version of '' Skins''. The track "Holy Pictures" is featured in football video game ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2010'' (officially abbreviated as ''PES 2010'' and known in Asia as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2010'') is the ninth football video game in the ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' series. The game was developed and published by K ...

''. "Theme / I.M.C." previously appeared on the compilation ''The Oh Yeah Sessions '08'' as "McCready Rides Again". The song "I Heard Wonders" was featured in the opening ceremony of the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and, later in 2012, as the theme for the first series of ''

Dara Ó Briain's Science Club ''Dara Ó Briain's Science Club'' is a British science television series presented by Dara Ó Briain which first aired on BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It cove ...

''.

Track listing

All music and lyrics written David Holmes, except where noted.

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 ...

bonus tracks

Personnel

Musicians * David Holmes –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

(1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7),

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

(1, 2), CS80 synthesizer (3),

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

(6), programming (1–4, 8, 9),

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

(3, 4, 6),

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

(2, 4–8),

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

(all tracks) *

Leo Abrahams Leo Matthew Abrahams (born 1977 in Camden, London) is an English musician, composer and producer. He has collaborated with a multitude of professional musicians, including Brian Eno, Katie Melua, Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât, Regina ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

(1–4, 6), bass (1, 7, 10), six string bass (10),

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(1), RMI electric piano (2, 4),

guitaret The Guitaret is an electric lamellophones, electric lamellophone made by Hohner and invented by Ernst Zacharias, in 1963. Zacharias also invented similar instruments like the Pianet, Cembalet and the Clavinet. The instrument itself was not popular ...

(3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10),

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

(4), big string (5),

marxophone The Marxophone is a fretless zither played via a system of metal hammers. It features two octaves of double melody strings in the key of C major ( middle C to C''), and four sets of chord strings (C major, G major, F major, and D7). Sounding s ...

and

hurdy gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

(7) * Danny Todd –

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

and

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(5), vocals (7), additional bass (10) *

Woody Jackson Woodrow Wilson Jackson III (born June 10, 1970) is an American composer and session musician. He is best known for his work with Rockstar Games, composing scores for its video games ''Red Dead Redemption'', ''L.A. Noire'', ''Grand Theft Auto V' ...

–

chamberlin The Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by the American inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. There are severa ...

and glockenspiel (2), ring mod (5), recording (2, 5, 6, 8, 9) *

Scott Kinsey Scott Kinsey is a keyboardist and member of the band Tribal Tech. He is a 1991 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Career In addition to playing in Tribal Tech with Scott Henderson and Gary Willis, Kinsey has worked with phil ...

– RMI electric piano (5), CS80 synthesizer and

toy piano The toy piano, also known as the ''kinderklavier'' (child's keyboard), is a small piano-like musical instrument. Most modern toy pianos use round metal rods, as opposed to strings in a regular piano, to produce sound. The U.S. Library of Congress ...

(6),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and organ (8), chamberlin (9) *

Jon Hopkins Jonathan Julian Hopkins (born 15 August 1979) is an English musician and producer who writes and performs electronic music. He began his career playing keyboards for Imogen Heap, and has produced but also contributed to albums by Brian Eno, Co ...

– piano and CS1 synthesizer (10) *

Tim Harries Tim Harries (born 1959) is a British bass player, who has played with various folk rock and jazz bands in his career. Biography Harries studied music at the University of York, graduating in 1981 before going on to study double bass with Tom ...

– bass (2, 4, 6, 8) *

Jason Falkner Jason Falkner (born June 2, 1968) is an American songwriter, musician, and guitarist who was a member of the bands Jellyfish (band), Jellyfish, the Three O'Clock, and the Grays (band), the Grays. Since 1996, he has released six solo albums, start ...

– bass (2) * Donald Skinner – bass (5) *

Jeremy Stacey Jeremy Stacey (born 27 September 1963) is a British drummer and keyboard player. His early works included the 1990s band The Lemon Trees (with twin brother Paul Stacey on guitars, Guy Chambers and others) and Denzil. He has also played with She ...

– drums (1, 6, 7) * Zack Danziger – drums (4, 5) * Pati Hilton –

(3) *

Foy Vance Foy Vance (born 1974) is a musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland signed to Ed Sheeran's Gingerbread Man label. Vance has toured as a support act to British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and his music has been featured on numerous ...

– backing vocals (6), vocals (8) * Tanya Mellote – additional bass (6), vocals (6, 7) * Nina Holmes – vocals (8) Production * Dave Terry – assistant engineer (1, 2, 4, 6–8, 10) *

Hugo Nicolson Hugo Nicolson is an English record producer and engineer, who has worked on records for artists including Primal Scream, Embrace, David Holmes, Shack, Julian Cope, and his sister, Claire Nicolson (musician) who also performs under the pseudonym ...

– recording (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) mixing (1, 2, 4, 6–10), additional drum programming (2) *

Stephen Hilton Stephen Hilton is an English composer, record producer, YouTuber & influencer. Filmography Hilton's work on movie scores consists of about 50 Hollywood features including franchises like ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', ''Madagascar'', ''The Fast ...

– CS80 synthesizer (3), mixing (3, 5) * Olga Fitzroy – assistant engineer (3, 5)

References

---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Pictures, The 2008 albums David Holmes (musician) albums