''Buildings'' is the debut album by

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

trio

General Fiasco General Fiasco are an indie rock group from Bellaghy, Northern Ireland. Since their formation in 2006, they have toured with Little Comets, Fighting With Wire, The Wombats, One Night Only, The Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy, Jet and Kids in Gl ...

, and which was released on 22 March 2010. The band launched the album at the Mandela Hall in Belfast on the night of 21 March. The album appeared briefly at number 77 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

Background and Recording

Between 2009 and 2010, the band were constantly recording, and by mid-2009, they planned to release their debut album independently but the independent release was scrapped after being signed to Infectious Records in 2009, many songs that were re-recorded, the first of which was "We Are The Foolish" and was released as the band's first single's through

Infectious Records An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

. There were over 20 songs recorded for the album but only 12 made the cut. Omitted tracks included: "Sell Yourself," "Maybe I'm A Little Bit Strange," "I Like It When You're Naked," "Get Me," "Little Doors," "A Wise Decision," and "Desert Hearts."
The first official single to promote the album was " Ever So Shy". The single was a success which earned the band daytime airplay on stations such as

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

and regularly being featured on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

.
Owen Strathern said in an interview "(the album) reflects the frustration felt watching friends succumb to alcohol and doing nothing to better their lives. It's all quite upbeat, poppy and rocky but the contents are all pretty bleak," says General Fiasco's Owen Strathern, "It was being aware of everybody wrecking themselves and not realising it. I'm sure everyone has something they really want to strive for, something they really want to achieve and it's the frustration of not being fit to achieve it yourself and watching people not even try."
The album was launched at a sell-out gig at the Mandela Hall in Belfast on the night of 21 March 2010 and was released in

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

the following day.

Promotion

The band appeared on numerous TV stations to perform in the weeks leading up to and during the album release, songs that were mainly performed were "We Are The Foolish," "Ever So Shy" and "Sinking Ships." The band's music was regularly featured in TV shows such as ''

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

'' and ''

The Inbetweeners ''The Inbetweeners'' is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 until 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager ...

''.

Critical response

The album received mixed reactions.

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

however gave a negative review claiming that it was perfunctory. The Belfast compared them to the

trio

Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

, who were also signed to

. Owen Strathern said in an interview with Matthew McCreary of the newspaper, "We don't want to be Ash.... It's a coincidence that we are trio from Northern Ireland and a even bigger coincidence that we were signed to the same record label. But I think we have our own thing going on, enough not to have to worry about being in someone's shadow."McCreary, Matthew (19 March 2010)
"A complete Fiasco – News, Music & Gigs – Belfasttelegraph.co.uk"
''The Belfast Telegraph''.co.uk.

Track listing

Charts

Personnel

* Owen Strathern – Lead vocals and bass guitar * Enda Strathern – Guitar and backing vocals * Stephen Leacock – Drums * Danny Keane – Cello on "Sinking Ships" and "Buildings" * Oli Langford – Violin & viola on "Sinking Ships" and "Buildings"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buildings (Album) 2010 debut albums General Fiasco albums Infectious Music albums