Solaris (Elliot Minor album)
Solaris is the second studio album from the English pop rock band Elliot Minor. The album was released on 19 October 2009 in all countries except for Japan. On 21 April 2010, the album was released in Japan with three exclusive bonus tracks.[1]
| Solaris | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 19 October 2009 (UK) 21 April 2010 (Japan) | |||
| Recorded | March–September 2009, Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire Abbey Road, London Fourth Street Recording, Santa Monica Mavehole Studios, York Mid City Sound, Los Angeles The Yard, London South Beach Studios, Miami Alpha Centauri, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 50:02 | |||
| Label | Repossession Records / Dreamusic | |||
| Producer | Jim Wirt | |||
| Elliot Minor chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Solaris | ||||
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History
The new songs pull from the band’s experiences of making and touring their first album. Songwriter Alex Davies says, "I had heard about the pressures of a second album on the songwriter and I can assure you it is true, you have all your life to write your first album and months to write your second. Fortunately I had a load of melodies running around my head and lyric ideas that pulled from the changes in my life over the years that Elliot Minor was formed till now. The majority of the songs are uplifting as I was being positive in a pretty tough year to work through and the others are more personal and intimate."[2]
The band planned to release two singles prior to the release of this album, the first being the title track "Solaris", followed by "Electric High". However, "Solaris" was not released on iTunes as planned on 10 August 2009, due to technical difficulties with the format. As an apology to the fans, they offered the acoustic version of "Solaris" plus three ringtones as a free download on their official site. By this time, the video to "Electric High" had already been sent to TV channels; thus the band decided to go ahead with "Electric High" as the first single from the album. There were technical problems with this single as well, however, causing it to chart very poorly.
The single edit of "Solaris" was not used, as the band rerecorded the song for the album.
The band plans to release more singles from this album in 2010.
The album debuted at 73 in the official charts and number 9 in the Indie charts.
A new version of "Solaris" was released through iTunes on 21 February 2010, and was featured on the 2010 BBC Winter Olympics broadcast.
The band is doing a mini tour (Satellites Tour) in April 2010.
On 26 March 2010, the band announced via a Kerrang radio interview that "I Believe" would be the next single.
The band is currently recording an acoustic version of this album which will be bundled with the Kerrang! Live Special DVD.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Dancer" | Alex Davies | 3:09 |
| 2. | "I Believe" | Alex Davies | 4:26 |
| 3. | "Electric High" | Alex Davies | 3:49 |
| 4. | "Coming Home" | Alex Davies/Ed Minton | 5:08 |
| 5. | "Carry On" | Alex Davies/Ed Minton | 4:14 |
| 6. | "Solaris" | Alex Davies | 3:42 |
| 7. | "Better Than the Courtroom" | Alex Davies | 4:11 |
| 8. | "All Along" | Alex Davies | 4:39 |
| 9. | "Discover (Why the Love Hurts)" | Alex Davies | 3:27 |
| 10. | "Shiver" | Alex Davies | 4:18 |
| 11. | "Tethered" | Alex Davies/Andrew McMahon | 4:25 |
| 12. | "Let's Turn This Back Around" | Alex Davies/Ed Minton | 4:33 |
| 13. | "Jacky Jules" (Japanese bonus track) | Alex Davies/Ed Minton | 3:04 |
| 14. | "Solaris (Commercial single version)" (Japanese bonus track) | Alex Davies | 3:11 |
| 15. | "Solaris (Acoustic)" (Japanese bonus track) | Alex Davies | 3:24 |
Exclusively in Japan, 3 bonus tracks are included: "Jacky Jules", the commercial single version of "Solaris" (used in the BBC broadcast of the 2010 Winter Olympics), and the acoustic version of "Solaris".[3]
Singles
| Date | Single | UK | UK Indie |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 April 2009 | "Discover (Why the Love Hurts)" | N/A | N/A |
| 5 October 2009 | "Electric High" | 120 | 13 |
| 11 July 2010 | "I Believe" | N/A | N/A |
Personnel
- Alex Davies - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, violin, strings/choral/orchestral arrangements, songwriter
- Ed Minton - vocals, guitar, violin
- Dan Hetherton - drums, backing vocals
- Ed Hetherton - bass, cello
- Ali Paul - keyboards, synthesizer
- Jim Wirt - producer, engineer, bass guitar, backing vocals
- John Greatwood - mixer (all except tracks 2, 3, 14), engineer
- Jeff Hannan - mixing engineer
- Eric Pham - assistant engineer
- Ethan Schmidt - assistant engineer
- Max Coane - engineer
- James Mirabal - assistant engineer
References
- HMV product details
- Glasswek National with Elliot Minor
- "ELLIOT MINOR [エリオットマイナー]". Dreamusic.co.jp. Retrieved 8 May 2010.