John Miles - Stranger In The City (1976) (Lp) - €10,00

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Stranger in the City was the second solo album by John Miles and was released in 1977. It was awarded BPI Silver Certification on 19 July 1977.

Recording sessions with its producer and orchestral arranger Rupert Holmes started in the summer of 1976 in the United States when Miles was promoting his first album Rebel. 

The bulk of the album was recorded in England.

For this album, Miles recruited Australian keyboardist Gary Moberley because Miles felt that his previous album was missing something funky.

After his initial breakthrough with his previous singles “Highfly” and in particular the monumental “Music” plus a fine debut album “Rebel”, John Miles sought to fully push open the door of opportunity with this hastily recorded and released follow-up album.  

Containing three good singles, sadly for Miles, only one of them made the top 20 and that the bandwagon-jumping discofied “Slow Down”, while this, the related album stalled in the charts. Thereafter, he got lost in the crowd, as disco and punk / new wave combined to squeeze out either only the most established acts, many of whom were quick to ape aspects of both the fashionable new genres or those who raised their game to meet the challenge. On this perfectly likeable album, it’s apparent that Miles couldn’t quite hit the same heights as that promising debut. To take one contemporary example, clearly Queen could have backed themselves into a corner with the huge success of the unique “Bohemian Rhapsody” but came out punching straight afterwards with the more conventional but still high-quality “Somebody To Love”.

Miles first two singles from “Stranger In Town” were “Remember Yesterday”, a melodic, plaintive ballad and the Elton John-influenced flashy pop of “Manhattan Skyline” but neither broke into the top 30, thus highlighting Miles’s limitations not only in songwriting and vocalising, but also his lack of image. He’d been rather silly in following a James Dean-type persona to promote the first album, now he was trying to let the music stand on its own, but ultimately, it wasn’t quite up to the task.

Like I said, the three singles, in their own ways are perfectly serviceable and there are one or two other strong tracks supporting them, especially the album title track with its loping, vaguely noirish riff and the extended prog-rocky centrepiece “Stand Up And Give Me A Reason”, complete with ill-judged Jon Anderson-type scat-singing at the end. The rest however lean towards the dreaded album-filler category.

He even lets fellow-band member Barry Marshall contribute a song in the form of the hoedowny rather vacuous “Do It Anyway”, “Time” is a similarly empty attempt at a serious ballad, “Glamour Boy” is Steely Dan without either the biting wit or melodic flair and “Music Man” is a clunky album closer, its misjudged title, a bit too close to his biggest hit, an over-repetitive “What’s a star?” refrain and worst of all a melody which sounded too similar to the theme tune to the popular talent show of the day, “New Faces”.

There’s a lack of depth in the often clichéd lyrics and a similar want of verve in his melodies with Miles you suspect writing by rote rather than from inspiration and no amount of studio. proficiency, of which there is plenty, can make up for them. He has a pleasant light-tenor voice and considerable range at the top end of his register, but you wonder if his singing, like much of his other attributes, really has a defining identity.

In the end, with the relative failure of this set, Miles faded away to relative obscurity and instead became a hired gun for Alan Parsons and his various oProjects in the studio and for Tina Turner on the road as guitarist for hire.

One of his later songs was called “Nice Man Jack”. Sad to say Nice Man John turned out not to quite have enough in his locker to become a lasting star with the wider public. There’s some decent music here but listening to it, the lack of personality is palpable and he he was clearly just off the pace. Consequently, Miles, who sadly died recently, never really looked like reigniting his own career as an artist anytime after this, his career ironically following the trajectory he himself outlined in his superb debut single for Decca “Highfly”. 

Side A

A1.  Stranger In The City - 4:28

A2.  Slow Down - 4:46

A3.  Stand Up And Give Me A Reason - 6:59

A4.  Time - 3:55

Side B

B1.  Manhattan Skyline - 3:04

B2.  Glamour Boy - 4:46

B3.  Do It Anyway - 2:43

B4.  Remember Yesterday - 5:16

B5.  Music Man - 4:44

Personnel

• John Miles – vocals, piano, guitar
• Bob Marshall – bass guitar
• Barry Black – drums
• Gary Moberley – keyboards
• Jimmy Maelen – conga, Latin percussion
• Rupert Holmes – producer, orchestral arrangements, conductor

Technical

• Bob Clearmountain, James Guthrie, Mike Bobak - engineer
• Godfrey Diamond - mixing
• Hipgnosis - design, photography

Notes

Release:  1976

Format:  LP

Genre:  Pop

Label:  London Records

Catalog#  PS 682

Vinyl:  Goed

Cover:  Goed (Gatefold)

Prijs: €10,00