''The Sun Is Often Out'' (stylized as ''THE SUN iS OfTEN oUT'') is the debut album by

Longpigs Longpigs were an English indie rock band who rose to fame on the fringe of Britpop in the 1990s, comprising Crispin Hunt (vocals), Richard Hawley (guitar), Simon Stafford (bass guitar) and former Cabaret Voltaire (band), Cabaret Voltaire member ...

, released in 1996 on U2's record label,

Mother Records Mother Records was a record label founded by the band U2 in 1983 and distributed by parent Island Records. As a supportive promotional platform, the label released several one-off single releases for The Hothouse Flowers, In Tua Nua and Cactus ...

. Five singles were released from the album, initially to little success. The first two - "She Said" and "Jesus Christ" - both failed to crack the UK Top 40, both stalling at No. 67. The third single - "Far" fared a little better, scraping into the Top 40, reaching No. 37 and received significant radio airplay, particularly on the national pop and rock radio station,

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. It was, however, the next single, "On and On” which would be the band’s breakthrough single; reaching No. 16 in the UK. With this momentum the album was released in April and shortly after "She Said" was re-released, also making it to No. 16 in the UK singles chart. The final single from the album "Lost Myself", narrowly missed out on giving the band a third successive Top 20 single, stalling at No. 22. ''The Sun Is Often Out'' was declared one of 1996's 50 best albums by both '' Q'' and ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' and retains a favourable 4 star rating on the

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 ...

website, by both critics and fans.

Track listing

All songs written by Crispin Hunt except where noted. #"Lost Myself" – 5:04 #"She Said" – 4:24 #"Far" – 3:46 #"On and On" – 4:10 #"Happy Again" – 4:17 #"All Hype" (Hunt, Dee Boyle) – 3:23 #"Sally Dances" – 3:44 #"Jesus Christ" – 4:00 #"Dozen Wicked Words" – 5:00 #"Elvis" – 4:22 #"Over Our Bodies" – 21:15 *The song "Over Our Bodies" ends at 7:05. After 10 minutes of silence (7:05 - 17:05), begins the

hidden song In the field of recorded music, a hidden track (sometimes called a ghost track, secret track or unlisted track) is a song or a piece of audio that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, LP record, or other recorded medium, in such a way as t ...

"Sleep".

Personnel

Longpigs

*Crispin Hunt –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Richard Hawley Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longp ...

– guitar, vocals *Simon Stafford – bass,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

, vocals *Dee Boyle –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, vocals

Additional personnel

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

– producer *

Jonathan Quarmby Jonathan Hugh Quarmby (born 20 December 1961 in Huddersfield), is an English record producer and songwriter and son of English architect Arthur Quarmby. Biography Studying architecture at Sheffield University, he soon became a part of the city' ...

– producer * Hugh Jones – additional mix and production on "Far". *

Gil Norton Gil Norton (born in Liverpool) is an English record producer known for his work with alternative rock bands such as Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Foo Fighters, Tribe, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, The Distillers, Maxïmo ...

– additional mix and production on "On and On".

References

External links

''The Sun Is Often Out''
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

(streamed copy where licensed) Longpigs albums Albums produced by Hugh Jones (producer) Albums produced by Kevin Bacon (producer) Albums produced by Jonathan Quarmby 1996 debut albums {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub