''Man @ Work'' is the eighth studio album by

Scottish Australian Scottish Australians ( sco, Scots Australiens, gd, Astràilianaich Albannach) are ‌‍‍‍‍residents of Australia who are fully or partially of Scottish descent. According to the 2021 Australian census, 130,060 Australian residents were ...

singer

Colin Hay Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay's music ha ...

, released by

Compass Records Compass Records is an independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown that specializes in folk music, folk, bluegrass music, bluegrass, Celtic music, Celtic, jazz, and acoustic music. In 2006, Compass purchased t ...

in July 2003.

Overview

The album is a career-retrospective for Hay: he is best known as the lead singer for the 1980s Australian pop band

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is Coli ...

, and roughly half of the songs on this album are Hay's solo studio renderings of works from the Men at Work catalog, while several others are remixes or re-recordings of material from his solo albums. Some songs are almost identical to the original recordings (e.g. "

Be Good Johnny "Be Good Johnny" is a song recorded by the Australian band Men at Work, released in April 1982 as the third and final single from their debut album, '' Business as Usual''. Content The song is written from the viewpoint of a 9-year-old boy who ...

") while others are complete reinterpretations (e.g. acoustic versions of "

Down Under The term ''Down Under'' is a colloquialism which is differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or Pacific Island countries collectively.Oxford English Dictionary (Electronic), Version 4.0, entry fordown under. The dictionary ...

" and "

Who Can It Be Now? "Who Can It Be Now?" is a song recorded by Australian band Men at Work. It was released in Australia in 1981, prior to the recording of their 1981 debut album '' Business as Usual'', on which the track was later included. "Who Can It Be Now?" r ...

"). The album concludes with a version of "Down Under" recorded with the group Wild Clams. The album was re-released on vinyl in 2014 with different tracklisting replacing several tracks with new ones.

Reception

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 ...

gave a mostly negative review of the album, saying of the Men at Work covers that "While such acoustic Men at Work tracks as "Overkill" and "Who Can It Be Now?" are quite charming and worth hearing, the pointless re-recordings of "Be Good Johnny" and "It's a Mistake" (which are almost identical to the originals) are pretty darn pointless." They summarized his solo reworkings as "worth hearing, but of course, they're not up to the high '' Business as Usual'' standards." They concluded that the album "will only be of interest to the hardest of hardcore Colin Hay fan." The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

wrote that, "In the best possible sense, ''Man @ Work'' is like Colin Hay's cover version of his own greatest hits album."

Track listing

All tracks written by Colin Hay, except where noted. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Personnel

*Colin Hay –

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, ...

, bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals *Jeff Babko – organ, piano, keyboards *

Luis Conte Luis Conte (born 16 November 1954) is a Cuban percussionist best-known for his performances in the bands of artists including James Taylor, Madonna, Pat Metheny Group, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and Shakira. He began ...

– percussion *Johnathon Dresel – drums *

Jimmy Earl James Christopher Earl (born 1957) is an American jazz bass guitarist who is a member of the ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' band. Early life and education In 1957, James Christopher Earl was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to James and Sylvia Earl. He i ...

— bass *Bill Esparza – saxophone *

Chad Fischer Chad Fischer is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer from Santa Monica, California, also known as the frontman of the band Lazlo Bane. Early years Chad Fischer's early work was being a drummer for the ban ...

— percussion, drums,

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

, background vocals *Mario Gonzales – trumpet *Greg Ham – flute *Andrés "Dez" Hernandez – turntables *Eric Jorgensen –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

*Cecilia Noël – piano, background vocals, vocal harmony *Lee Thornburg – trumpet *Guillermo Vadala – bass *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

— guitar *Toshi Yanagi – guitar

Production

*Producer: Colin Hay *Engineers: Dave Dale, Juan Pablo Fallucca, Chad Fischer, Colin Hay, Edwardo McKinley *Mixing: Juan Pablo Fallucca, Chad Fischer, Colin Hay, Edwardo McKinley *Loops: Chad Fischer *Drum programming: Chad Fischer *Design: Griffin Norman *Photography: Gregory Cannon, Cecilia Noël *Cover painting: Norval

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man at Work Colin Hay albums 2003 albums