Stranger Comes to Town
| Stranger Comes to Town | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Studio album by Steve Harley | ||||
| Released | 3 May 2010 | |||
| Genre | Rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 49:46 | |||
| Label | Absolute (UK) Repertoire Records (Europe) Comeuppance Ltd |
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| Producer | Steve Harley | |||
| Steve Harley chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | Unrated |
| Record Collector |   |
| Express.co.uk | |
| The Press (York) | favourable |
| Rocktimes (German) | favourable |
| Lancashire Telegraph | favourable |
| The Bolton News | favourable |
| R2 magazine | favourable |
| "Faith & Virtue" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Steve Harley | ||||
| Released | 2 May 2010 | |||
| Format |
digital download CD single (promo only) |
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| Genre | Rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 4:48 | |||
| Label | Comeuppance Ltd | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Steve Harley, Barry Wickens | |||
| Producer(s) | Steve Harley | |||
| Steve Harley singles chronology | ||||
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| "For Sale. Baby Shoes. Never Worn" | ||||
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| Single by Steve Harley | ||||
| Released | 27 June 2010 | |||
| Format | digital download | |||
| Genre | Rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 3:59 | |||
| Label | Comeuppance Ltd | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Steve Harley | |||
| Producer(s) | Steve Harley | |||
| Steve Harley singles chronology | ||||
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Stranger Comes to Town is the fifth studio album from English songwriter and musician Steve Harley. Released in 2010, the album was Harley's first studio album in five years, following the Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel album The Quality of Mercy. The album was produced by Harley.
After the release of The Quality of Mercy in 2005, Harley continued to write and record new material (primarily demos). In January 2007, Harley and the band entered the recording studio and plans for a new studio album were announced with a possible spring 2008 release. The album's working title was "Wide Screen", with an alternative being "The Road Home". Although the proposed album did not come to fruition, Harley continued writing. Later in March 2009, he revealed in his online diary that a contractual issue had delayed a new album: "Finally wrapped up a contract wrangle which has kept me sometimes awake and regularly disturbed for almost three years. Cost me a great deal in all sorts of energies and resources to end this loathsome arrangement, but I knew in my heart I had to sort it."
Intending to soon enter the studio, Harley commented of his unfinished song ideas and demo recordings: "The notes are there, in notebooks and on scraps of mini-disc. Tunes and couplets, simple rhymes and deeper thoughts all jumbled, randomly acquired and noted over the past few years. There is only one way I will collate it all into coherent songs, and that is by booking a recording studio." Harley and his band Cockney Rebel spent a month at Leeders Farm Residential Studios, Norfolk, in September-October 2009. Harley would typically spend 12 or more hours a day working on the album. In October 2009, he commented in a diary entry:
"Slightly shattered. Ten tracks recorded, some sung, others waiting for lyrics. It's like jet-lag. Coming down from the mad rushes of adrenalin that go with the producing/recording process. Been living-in at a residential recording studio. Odd to get up and share breakfast with the band. Odd, too, to share the dinner table each night, but they are all decent blokes and easy to get along with. I'm the one with the swimming head, tunes and words, production plans all juggled at the same time, so I'm the distant one over the boiled eggs and soldiers."
During their residency at Leeders Farm, the band spent most mornings rehearsing around the studio's kitchen table. Due to other professional commitments, guitarist Robbie Gladwell was absent for much of the recording, leaving Barry Wickens to cover the electric guitar parts on half of the album. By the end of October, nine songs were nearing completion and the remainder of the year saw Harley spend more time in the studio to finish the album, including recording vocals and mixing the tracks. In a November diary entry, he revealed: "Stranger Comes to Town, new CD, likely to be released early May. Got 10 new songs. Three of them are co-written with various guys. Tunes only. Not words. Only wish any one of them had a literary bent, too. The lyrics have been the toughest part, as usual."
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