''Leisure Noise'' is the first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

band

Gay Dad Gay Dad were an English rock band that formed in London in 1994 and broke up in 2002. The line-up of the band has included Cliff Jones (guitarist/vocalist), Nick "Baz" Crowe (drummer), James Riseboro (keyboardist), Nigel Hoyle (bassist) and ...

, released via

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

and

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...

on 7 June 1999. The album is a blending of

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

neo-psychedelia Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop su ...

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

and

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

into

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

. Lyrically it is often about and constructed of rock history. The track-listing was designed to mimic the traditional two-sided vinyl.

Chris Hughes Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...

produced the album, except for "To Earth with Love", which was produced by

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

and Mark Frith.

Gary Langan Gary Michael Langan (born 19 April 1956) is an English engineer, record producer, mixer and musician. Biography His career started at age 18 when he worked as an assistant engineer at Sarm East Studios, learning the craft from Gary Lyons and M ...

handled recording and mixing; Howie Weinberg mastered the album at Masterdisc in New York City. In 2014, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' included the album in its list of "30 Glorious Britpop Albums That Deserve a Reissue Pronto," saying "A music journalist turned rock star? It’ll never catch on… Hmmm, back in a sec… Anyway, Face scribe Cliff Jones might've cut a faintly ridiculous figure but he had the looks and – in "Joy!" and "To Earth with Love" – songs that could light up any Cool Britannic indie dancefloor. Just imagine those brash cuts freshly remastered."

Critical response

;Accolades

Track listing

All tracks written by Nicholas Crowe, Cliff Jones, Nigel Hoyle and James Riseboro, except where noted. #"Dimstar" – 5:14 #" Joy!" – 5:00 #"Oh Jim" – 2:46 #"My Son Mystic" – 3:25 #"Black Ghost" (Crowe, Jones, Hoyle,

Jim Irvin Jim Irvin is an English singer, songwriter, music journalist and podcast host. Early life Born James Lawrence Irvin and raised in west London. Career Furniture Irvin was the singer in the English new wave band Furniture, who released singles ...

, Riseboro) – 7:35 #"

To Earth with Love "To Earth with Love" is a song English rock band Gay Dad, released on 18 January 1999 as their debut single and lead single from their first album, '' Leisure Noise''. The song peaked at number 10 in the UK Singles Chart and number 35 in New Ze ...

" – 5:04 #"Dateline" – 4:43 #"Pathfinder" – 3:56 #"Different Kind of Blue" (Crowe, Jones, Hoyle, Irvin, Riseboro) – 4:51 #"Jesus Christ" (Crowe, Jones, Hoyle, Irvin, Riseboro) – 4:16

Personnel

Personnel per booklet. Gay Dad * Cliff Jones *James Riseboro *Nicholas Crowe *Nigel Hoyle Additional musicians *

Carol Kenyon Carol Kenyon (sometimes spelt Karol; born 1959) is a British singer. She is best known for her vocals on the Heaven 17 hit song "Temptation", which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1983. When the song was re-released as a remix by ...

– additional vocals (tracks 2 and 10) *

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a yea ...

– horns (track 7) * Lynton Naiff – horn arrangement (track 7) Production *

– producer (all tracks except 6) *

– producer (track 6) * Mark Frith – co-producer *

- recording, mixing * Howie Weinberg – mastering Design * Peter Saville – graphic art * Paul Hetherington – graphic art * Howard Wakefield – graphic art * Paul Barnes – logo concept

References

{{Authority control 1999 debut albums Gay Dad albums Albums produced by Chris Hughes (musician) Albums produced by Tony Visconti London Records albums Sire Records albums