Waterpistol (album)
| Waterpistol | ||||||||||
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| Studio album by Shack | ||||||||||
| Released | 16 October 1995 | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1991 | |||||||||
| Genre | Britpop | |||||||||
| Length | 41:18 | |||||||||
| Label | Marina | |||||||||
| Producer | Chris Allison | |||||||||
| Shack chronology | ||||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Mojo | (favourable) |
| Rough Guides | (favourable) |
Waterpistol is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Shack. The album was recorded in 1991, but its release was delayed due to a studio fire which destroyed the master tapes. During the period between the album's recording and release, the band broke up and frontman Mick Head became addicted to heroin. A back-up of the recordings, lost and recovered by producer Chris Allison, was released on Marina Records in 1995. Ultimately, Waterpistol was well received by critics. The album was reissued in 2007 in expanded form by The Red Flag Recording Company.
Shack's 1988 debut album, Zilch, was a commercial flop upon its release. Critical consensus was that Head's songwriting was promising but that the album's production was lacking. In 1990, frontman Mick Head told NME that Shack's second album would be less lyrically serious than Zilch and that the band's influences at the time were The Stone Roses, Flowered Up, and The Charlatans. He also stated:
The stuff I'm working on now is far more humorous ... The new LP's gonna have better stories on it. It's a great challenge to put a story into a three-minute pop song. It'll still be very melodic, though, but with a more straight guitary vibe than before. It's gonna be a great album when it's finished.
The album was recorded in 1991 at Star Street Studio in London. Producer Chris Allison had difficulty working with Mick, saying that "Mick could never finish anything. I’ve never worked with anyone like him, and I hope I never do again. But he's a songwriting genius and one of the most gifted artists I’ve ever worked with." Allison said that Head was dependent on alcohol to fuel his creativity, and recalled one incident of locking Head into the studio until he had completed recording five vocal takes.
Ian Lowey of Rough Guides said that musically, the album was very similar to The Stone Roses, but rather than looking to 1960s psychedelia as that band had done, Shack drew influence from 1960s pop music. Stewart Mason of Allmusic also compared the album's sound to a more acoustic-sounding version of the Stone Roses and The La's, and noted similarities to the genres of jangle pop and Britpop.
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