''Terence Trent D'Arby's Symphony or Damn* (*Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness)'' is the third studio album by

Terence Trent D'Arby Sananda Francesco Maitreya (born Terence Trent Howard; March 15, 1962), who started his career with the stage name Terence Trent D'Arby, is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame with his debut studio album, ''Introducing the Hardlin ...

, released in 1993 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. This album marked something of a comeback after the disappointing performance of his previous album '' Neither Fish nor Flesh'', and was generally well received by many critics, with ''Q'' magazine rating it five stars upon its release.

Composition

The album is heavier in sound than D'Arby's debut album, which was essentially a mix of pop, soul and gospel. However ''Symphony or Damn'' contains several guitar oriented songs, such as "Do You Love Me Like You Say?", "Castillian Blue", "Are You Happy?" and the out-and-out rocker "She Kissed Me". The latter is an up-tempo hard rock song, that features the line "she likes rap and metal really loud", alluding to the subject's love of hip hop and heavy metal music. However, "Castillian Blue" and "Are You Happy?" have a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitar sound, with the former sounding dark and brooding and the latter featuring a far more upbeat pop/soul/blues sound. The drum sound throughout most of the album is also of a heavy nature. "Penelope Please" namechecks

the Pretenders Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Fa ...

frontwoman

Chrissie Hynde Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician. She is a founding member and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Pretenders, and one of the band's two remaining original members alon ...

in the chorus: "You will still be home in time, to watch '' The Pops'', featuring Chrissie Hynde".

Commercial success and single releases

The album peaked at number 4 on 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 ...

and was boosted by four top 20 UK singles, "Do You Love Me Like You Say?", " Delicate", featuring

Des'ree Desirée Annette Weekes (born 30 November 1968), known by her stage name Des'ree (), is an English pop recording artist who rose to popularity during the 1990s. She is best known for her hits "Feel So High", "You Gotta Be", "Life", and " Kissi ...

(both tracks peaked at number 14 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

), "She Kissed Me" (UK number 16) and "

Let Her Down Easy "Let Her Down Easy" is a song written and produced by American singer-songwriter Terence Trent D'Arby for his third studio album, ''Symphony or Damn'' (1993). It was released as the fourth single in November 1993 and reached number 18 in the Unit ...

" (UK number 18). Two more tracks were released from the album but they were not as successful as the aforementioned tracks. "Turn the Page" failed to chart, while "Neon Messiah" was released as an EP in Japan only. This included a number of B-sides and is a widely sought-after collector's item.

Track listing

#"Welcome to My Monasteryo" – 0:31 #"She Kissed Me" – 3:39 #"Do You Love Me Like You Say?" – 5:30 #"Baby, Let Me Share My Love" – 3:56 #" Delicate" (featuring

) – 4:16 #"Neon Messiah" – 3:55 #"Penelope Please" – 3:07 #"Wet Your Lips" – 4:15 #"Turn the Page" – 6:07 #"Castilian Blue" – 5:15 #"Tension Inside The Sweetness/Frankie & Johnny" – 3:29 #"Are You Happy?" – 3:54 #"Succumb to Me" – 5:14 #"I Still Love You" – 2:15 #"Seasons" – 5:37 #"

" – 4:06

Personnel

*Terence Trent D'Arby – vocals, acoustic & rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, clavinet, drums, percussion, drum programming, backing vocals * Craig Porteils – engineer *

Chester Kamen Chester Kamen (born in Hackney, London) is an English session guitarist, whose work has included performing with Paul McCartney, Bryan Ferry, Bob Geldof, Madonna, Duran Duran, Robbie Williams, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Seal, Massive Attack, Ki ...

Tommy Girvin Tommy Girvin is a guitarist who is most famous for playing with Eddie Money, with whom he played since 1986. Prior to Eddie Money, he played in a band from southern California called Smile, which reportedly had considerable success. Smile shared ...

Tim Pierce Tim Pierce (born 1959 in Albuquerque) is an American session guitarist. He has worked for artists such as Joe Cocker, Crowded House, Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Jackson, Beth Hart, Roger Waters, Alice Cooper, Johnny Hallyday, Phil Collins, and the C ...

, Aaron McClain – guitar *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...

, Kevin Wyatt, Tim Archibald,

Neil Stubenhaus Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975. After graduation, he was rec ...

, Will McGregor – bass *

Curt Bisquera Curt "Kirkee B." Bisquera is an American drummer known for his extensive work as a touring and session musician. Biography Bisquera has worked with Johnny Cash, Josh Groban, Mick Jagger, Seal, Sarah McLachlan, Elton John, Johnny Hallyday and To ...

Harvey Mason Harvey William Mason (born February 22, 1947) is an American jazz drummer, record producer, and member of the band Fourplay. Mason, who attended Berklee in the 1960s, received an Honorary Doctorate at Berklee's 2015 Commencement Ceremony for ...

– drums *

Randy Kerber Randy Kerber (born September 25, 1958) is an American composer, orchestrator and keyboard player, who has had a prolific career in the world of cinema.SeRandy Kerberat the IMDb Kerber was born in Encino, California. He began his first national t ...

– electric piano *

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

– keyboards *

Emilio Castillo Emilio Castillo (born September 24, 1950) is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power. Background In 1965, Emilio Castillo took to music after he and his brother Jack were caught stealing by ...

, Brandon Fields, Dino Govoni, Donny McCaslin, Scott Gilman – tenor saxophone *

Stephen "Doc" Kupka Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. There have been a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the ...

– baritone saxophone *Bob Bowlby – alto saxophone * Greg Adams, Lee Thornburg, Andy Gravish, Joe Giorgianni – trumpet *John Wheller – trombone *John Allmark – trumpet, flugelhorn *Peter Cirelli – baritone horn *Matthew Vaughan – keyboards, programming

Charts

References

External links

Sananda Maitreya's Official Site
Includes a more detailed discography {{Authority control 1993 albums Terence Trent D'Arby albums Columbia Records albums