Poetic Justice (Steve Harley album)
| Poetic Justice | ||||
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| Studio album by Steve Harley | ||||
| Released | August 1996 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 51:43 | |||
| Label | Transatlantic Records (Castle Communications PLC) | |||
| Producer | Steve Harley | |||
| Steve Harley chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| 24.000 Dischi (Italian Dalai editore book) | |
| The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music | |
| High Fidelity News and Record Review (Volume 41, Issues 7–12 – Link House Publications) | favourable |
Poetic Justice is the fourth studio album by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley, released in 1996. It was produced by Harley.
Since 1989, Harley made a return to regular touring with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and also released the solo album, Yes You Can, in 1992. During the middle of the decade, Harley began recording a new solo album at Berry House Studios in Ardingly, Sussex. In August 1996, Poetic Justice was released on Transatlantic Records. Featuring new songs, three covers and a re-recording of "Riding the Waves (For Virginia Woolf)", most of the new songs had been written by Harley during the band's touring schedule.
The album's three covers consisted of the Jimmy Ruffin's 1966 song "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?", the Bob Dylan's 1965 song "Love Minus Zero-No Limit" and the Van Morrison's 1970 song "Crazy Love". In a May 1997 interview with Smiler magazine's John Gray, Harley commented: "There's a lot of people who are quite unhappy with the covers that I've done on my new album, so I'm thinking I won't bother doing any again. My audience think I've run out of ideas if I only write eight out of eleven." For the album, "Riding the Waves" was re-recorded live in the studio. It had originally appeared on Harley's 1978 debut solo album Hobo with a Grin.
No singles were released to promote the album, despite Harley's interest in releasing "That's My Life in Your Hands" and "The Last Time I Saw You". Additionally, Harley had recorded "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?" as a potential single. In his interview for Smiler magazine, Harley commented:
"They should have released "The Last Time I Saw You" or "That's My Life in Your Hands" – they would have got a lot of air play – not Radio One – but a good plugger these days gets people like me on all those "gold" stations or Virgin – they'll all play it, and even if it was only a turntable hit, I'd have liked that, but record companies now are run by accountants. It's hard to get anyone to talk sense."
Speaking of Robson & Jerome reaching the UK number one spot with their own 1996 version of "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?", Harley added: "I'd recorded it long before they turned up. We were saying to the record company, I'd done this as a single, and they hadn't got a bloody clue. Three months later it was being played by them."
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