Odyshape
Studio album by
The Raincoats
Released1 June 1981
RecordedMarch–June 1980
StudioBob's Berry Street Studio, Clerkenwell, London
GenrePost-punk, experimental
Length34:54
LabelRough Trade – ROUGH13
ProducerAdam Kidron, The Raincoats
The Raincoats chronology
The Raincoats
(1979)		 Odyshape
(1981)		 The Kitchen Tapes
(1983)

Odyshape is the second album by the Raincoats, originally released on 1 June 1981 by Rough Trade.

The album was reissued in 1993 by Geffen Records, inspired by Kurt Cobain's public praise for the group.[1]

Recording

Stylistically, Odyshape was a radical departure from the band's first album, featuring a diverse range of instruments, such as the shruti box, balophone, shehnai and kalimba,[2] which they picked up at junk shops and markets[3] or brought back from New York after their 1980 tour.[1] The band incorporated influences from ethnic field recordings and musicians such as Ornette Coleman, and often swapped instrumental roles to freshen the arrangements.[3]

Odyshape was recorded after Palmolive, the band's original drummer, had left the group, leaving the band to write without a drummer in mind; later the Raincoats hired Richard Dudanski (P.I.L.), Charles Hayward (This Heat) and Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine) to contribute percussion parts. Palmolive's original replacement, Ingrid Weiss, left during the start of the recording of Odyshape.

The album cover was based on the painting Peasant Woman by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Drowned in Sound8/10[1]
NME9/10[6]
Pitchfork8.0/10[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]
Select4/5[9]
Spin8/10[10]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[11]
Uncut[12]

Pitchfork reviewer Nick Neyland said, "This album has little in common with anything else around at the time, other than the feeling that you're hurtling relentlessly forward into a previously unmapped musical space... It's a very intimate recording, full of sounds they wisely never tried to recreate again, and vocal takes that are often inflected with a heart-crushing vulnerability."[7] Critic Simon Reynolds called it "postpunk that's been totally unrocked."[3]

BBC Music writer Chris Power said, "More than the exotic instrumentation, though, it's the extraordinary structures of Odyshape's songs that distinguish it. They don't so much begin and end as ebb and flow in a way that, historically, seems to have bewildered at least as many listeners as it's beguiled."[2] Noel Gardner of Drowned in Sound described the "new instruments" as essential to the recordings, noting that "you'd never call any of it 'prog', really, but the spirit of the commie beardos that comprised the Seventies Canterbury scene is being carried here nevertheless."[1]

The album was reissued in 1993 by Geffen Records, inspired by Kurt Cobain's public praise for the group.[1] The reissue features liner notes by Kim Gordon.[1]

Track listing

All tracks composed by the Raincoats; except where indicated

  1. "Shouting Out Loud" (The Raincoats, Ingrid Weiss) – 4:54
  2. "Family Treet" (The Raincoats, Caroline Scott) – 4:12
  3. "Only Loved at Night" – 3:32
  4. "Dancing in My Head" – 5:26
  5. "Odyshape" (The Raincoats, Ingrid Weiss) – 3:37
  6. "And Then It's O.K." (The Raincoats, lyrics by Caroline Scott) – 3:05
  7. "Baby Song" – 4:54
  8. "Red Shoes" – 2:51
  9. "Go Away" – 2:23

Personnel

The Raincoats
  • Ana da Silva – vocals, guitar, shruti box, kalimba, bass, percussion, harmonica
  • Gina Birch – vocals, bass, guitar, balafon
  • Vicky Aspinall – vocals, guitar, bass, violin, piano

with:

Cover versions

"Only Loved at Night" was covered by Softboiled Eggies for the Rough Trade Shops – Counter Culture 08 compilation (2009).[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gardner, Noel (2 September 2011). "Album Review: The Raincoats – Odyshape (reissue)". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 Power, Chris (12 September 2011). "The Raincoats Odyshape Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Reynolds, Simon (2005). Rip It Up and Start Again. Penguin. p. 191.
  4. ↑ "Peasant Woman, 1930 - Kazimir Malevich - WikiArt.org".
  5. ↑ Dougan, John. "Odyshape – The Raincoats". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  6. ↑ "The Raincoats: Odyshape". NME. 22 January 1994. p. 26.
  7. 1 2 Neyland, Nick (12 September 2011). "The Raincoats: Odyshape". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  8. ↑ Kot, Greg (2004). "Raincoats". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 673. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  9. ↑ Morrison, Dave (March 1994). "The Raincoats: Odyshape". Select. No. 45. p. 81.
  10. ↑ Powell, Mike (13 September 2011). "The Raincoats, 'Odyshape' (We Three Records)". Spin. Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  11. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (1995). "Raincoats". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. p. 320. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  12. ↑ "The Raincoats: Odyshape". Uncut. No. 173. October 2011.
  13. ↑ "Rough Trade Shops (Counter Culture 08) (2009, CD)". Discogs. 2 February 2009.
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