''Shock of Daylight'' is an EP by English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band the Sound, released in April 1984 on Statik Records in the UK and

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

in the US. The EP was seen by critics as a comeback for the band, after the band's critically and commercially disappointing previous album, 1982's '' All Fall Down''. Two singles were released from the EP, "Counting the Days" and "Golden Soldiers" (the latter in Spain only).

Background and content

''Shock of Daylight'' was recorded in Studio 3 of

Townhouse Studios The Town House (also known as Townhouse Studios) was a recording studio located at 150 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush in London, built in 1978 under the direction of Richard Branson for Virgin Records. The studios changed ownership and eventuall ...

, except for "Winter", which was recorded at Elephant Studio in London and a studio only referred to as "Crow". ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'' described the album's style as "If ''All Fall Down'' chipped away at the

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

walls of ''

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'', ''Shock of Daylight'' nails down the carpet, but nervously pulls open the curtains".

Release

''Shock of Daylight'' was released in April 1984 by record label Statik in the UK and A & M Records in the US. "Counting the Days" was released as a single in the UK. "Golden Soldiers" was released as a single in the same year in Spain only.

Reception

''Shock of Daylight'' has been well received by critics. ''

The Big Takeover ''The Big Takeover'' is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since May 1980 by critic Jack Rabid. History Establishment Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing ''The Big Takeover'' in May 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to N ...

'' described it as "a triumphant comeback for

he Sound He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

a nice return from the interesting but obviously non-commercial ''All Fall Down'', an LP whose lack of salibility effectively got 'em booted from Korova/Warners, and this first release on Static 'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''is a reminder of why they're such a great band". ''Melody Maker'' described the EP as "probably the most fearlessly outgoing music the Sound have produced since ''Jeopardy (album), Jeopardy''".

Track listing

Personnel

; The Sound *

Adrian Borland Adrian Kelvin Borland (6 December 1957 – 26 April 1999) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, best known as the frontman of post-punk band the Sound. Following a substantial musical career spanning numerous group ...

– vocals, guitar, keyboards * Colvin "Max" Mayers – keyboards, guitar * Graham Bailey – bass guitar * Michael Dudley – drums, percussion ; Additional personnel * Sarah Smith – brass, brass arrangement *

Tim Smith Tim, Timothy or Timmy Smith may refer to: Musicians * T. V. Smith (born 1956), British singer and songwriter *Tim Smith (Cardiacs) (1961–2020), English singer-songwriter and frontman of Cardiacs *Timmy Trumpet (born 1982), Australian DJ and prod ...

– brass, brass arrangement * Alan Douglas –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* Pat Collier –

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 ...

* Mike Bigwood – tape operator * Nick Robbins – drums and bass guitar on "Winter" * Graham Simmonds – guitar and vocals on "Winter"

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1984 EPs The Sound (band) albums Post-punk EPs