''Million Seller'' is an album by the Welsh
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...
band
the Pooh Sticks
The Pooh Sticks were a Welsh indie pop band from Swansea, Wales, primarily recording between 1988 and 1995. They were notable for their jangly melodiousness and lyrics gently mocking the indie scene of the time, such as on "On Tape", "Indiepop ...
, released in 1993. The album was a commercial disappointment, and the band was dropped by
Zoo Entertainment after its release.
[
The album's first single was "The World Is Turning On".
]
Production
''Million Seller'' was produced by Steve Gregory, with some assistance from Jim Rondinelli.[ The album cover depicts frontman Hue Williams floating on a 45 of Elvis Costello's "]Accidents Will Happen
"Accidents Will Happen" is a song written by Elvis Costello and performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It first appeared on the 1979 album '' Armed Forces''. Costello wrote the song about his many infidelities during this period of h ...
".[ As on previous albums, the Pooh Sticks incorporated titles, lyrics, and melodies to popular songs in to ''Million Sellers 13 tracks.
]
Critical reception
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' deemed the album "hopelessly arch, impossibly infectious pop-punk." ''Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...
'' wrote that "with meliaFletcher’s voice sweetly balancing Hue’s, 'Let the Good Times Roll' and 'The World Is Turning On' are fabulous confections, candy-pop mountains of ABBA-rock production and witty/silly lyrics."The State
A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...
'' likened it to "a '90s version of ''Sgt. Pepper'' or ''Atom Heart Mother''."
'' Spin'' called the album "a desperately hummable, anxiously erotic masterpiece from a band with enough heart to make your head spin." ''Stereo Review
''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...
'' noted that "these Brit youngsters—rigorous pop formalists with a cutesy streak more than a mile wide—apparently see themselves as the missing link between Neil Young and Edison Lighthouse ... Few less auspicious concepts have ever been digitally preserved." ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' labeled ''Million Seller'' "Carole King's ''Tapestry'' done by self-conscious sugarpop punks trying to rock and roll their way out of self-consciousness."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 databa ...
called it "truly a classic pop record," writing: "Too polished and produced to garner alternative credibility, yet not the kind of record destined to get any mainstream exposure, ''Million Seller'' slipped between the cracks."
Track listing
References
{{reflist
The Pooh Sticks albums
1993 albums
Zoo Entertainment (record label) albums