The Candidate (album)

The Candidate
Studio album by Steve Harley
Released	1979
Recorded	February 1979
Genre	Pop rock
Length	40:19
Label	EMI
Producer	Steve Harley, Jimmy Horowitz
Steve Harley chronology
Hobo with a Grin (1978) The Candidate (1979) The Best of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel (1980)

The Candidate is the second solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Steve Harley released in 1979.

Background

After Harley's move to America, which produced his debut solo album Hobo with a Grin, Harley spent some time away from the music scene and then returned to the UK after not appearing on stage live for two years. He returned to London in late 1978, where he announced that he would form a new band, record an album in February 1979, and then begin a world tour in March 1979. The album The Candidate was released later in the year in August,^[1] which coincided with a British and European tour which followed in October.^[2][3] The Candidate, despite predictions, was a commercial failure, although the sole single "Freedom's Prisoner" did peak at No. 58 in the UK in October 1979.^[4] As a result of the commercial failure, EMI dropped Harley from their label and Harley wouldn't release a new studio album until 1992's Yes You Can.^[5]

In an interview/article with Maggi Russell in 1979, under the title "Return of the Rebel", Harley revealed that the album had been written and recorded within only three weeks (although Huddersfield Daily Examiner revealed it to be two months).^[6] He stated "I needed the energy that London has. West Coast musicians have done it all before, and they're very blase. Here people put their heart and soul into their music. Stuart Elliott and Jo Partridge from Cockney Rebel worked on the album with me. It's very important when you're spending 12 hours a day in the studio with a bunch of people that you get on well, that you share a sense of humour. Otherwise you all end up having a bad time."

Harley also spoke of the album before its release in comparison to his debut solo album. He stated "Hobo with a Grin was a difficult album, and hard to market. My new album leans back more to the early Cockney Rebel sound, a similar tempo, more commercial perhaps." In relation to Harley's uncertainty that his British fans were still with him, he explained "It's a moveable feast, the fans move en bloc from one group to another. They don't stay with you, whereas in the States they are with you for good. In Britain the public rejects you quickly for something new. But I want to lead, not follow. I have made a record that I believe in. If the music press review it maturely I'll be glad, but that is doubtful. I'm really hoping for a good 1979, and I'm putting everything I've got into it. I'm back, and they are all going to know I am. You could spend a lot of time in this business getting affluent with success, but I'm more interested in my own sense of achievement. I hope my fans like it too."^[2]

In an article with the Evening News on 5 October 1979, Harley spoke of his return from America and the album's creation. "I spent almost a full year out there and did nothing except seim and sunbathe and head for some party or other at night. I had a rented house in Beverley Hills – it was costing me about £300 a week and all I did was lie by the pool and have friends to stay at the guest house. I then realised that I was getting nowhere fast and booked London's Abbey Road studios for two months. I called my old Cockney Rebel drummer Stuart Elliott and asked him put me a band together. I came back to London, and within about three weeks I had more than enough songs for an LP. I'm pleased with "The Candidate" – it's the best album I've done in ages." This related to the Hobo with a Grin album, which Harley dismissed by stating "I looked at that LP the other day – looking is enough. I can't bear to listen to it. It's the worst thing I've ever done. I'm getting the old Cockney Rebel band together for a concert in London at the end of this month. And there won't be one song from the "Hobo with a Grin" LP in the set. But "The Candidate" is a different story altogether. After hours of deliberation, I've left out two songs from it and I hated doing that. There isn't a bad song on it."^[7]

Later around the time of the release of Harley's 1983 single "Ballerina (Prima Donna)", which would be Harley's next charting single following "Freedom's Prisoner", Harley appeared for an interview on the TV show Scotland Today, where he explained why he had not released much after The Candidate album. The interviewer asked "What made you come back to the music scene?" Harley replied "Well, there's probably a lot of reasons. I never really left it. I've been very busy, I just haven't toured much, or released many records, because I don't want to be known for putting out a string of flops."^[8]

The album was entirely recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios, although mixing for "Freedom's Prisoner" took place at Morgan Studios. The album was mastered at Abbey Road Studios. The front cover photography was handled by Mick Rock, whilst the back sleeve photos were taken showing Harley and co. during the recording sessions of the album. The album was produced by Harley and Jimmy Horowitz, whilst Harley solely wrote all nine tracks, except "Freedom's Prisoner" which was written by Harley and Horowitz.^[9]

Release

The album was released in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal. It was issued via EMI on vinyl. A white label promo was also issued in the UK.^[10] In 2000, EMI and Harley's own Comeuppance Discs issued the album on CD for the first time with two bonus tracks; his unsuccessful 1982 non-album single "I Can't Even Touch You" and a live version of the 1974 Cockney Rebel song "Psychomodo".^[9] On 6 October 2003, Voiceprint issued the album limitedly as a part of their "2 for One Series" along with Harley's 1992 studio album Yes You Can.^[11] On 31 October 2011, it was released digitally remastered on CD by BGO Records as a double album set with the album Hobo with a Grin.^[12] It is also available as a download on Harley's own website.^[13]

Track listing

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[14]
24.000 Dischi (Italian Dalai editore book)	[15]
Smash Hits	5/10[16]
Q Magazine	[17]
Record Collector	[18]

Dave Thompson of Allmusic stated "When Steve Harley's "Freedom's Prisoner" single hit the airwaves in fall 1979, it would have taken a lot to convince the longtime fan that the man hadn't resparked all his old glories again, and was about to embark upon a musical journey as scintillating, and as fascinating, as that which launched him in the first place. A tidal wave of intriguing lyrics, a captivating chorus and a dynamic that was pure "Psychomodo", it was Harley's finest 45 in half a decade. It was also a total fluke, as the accompanying album flopped onto the streets and proved itself (as too many times before) to be little more than a clutch of substandard songs, glued together by alluring production alone. "Audience with the Man" and "From Here to Eternity" do bear repeated listens, but too much of "Candidate" clung so lifelessly to the stylus that it was hard to believe our hopes had ever soared so high."^[14]

In the Q Magazine issue of September 2000, following the CD re-issue of the album, the magazine reviewed the album, along with the CD re-issue of Hobo with a Grin. The review stated: "Despite Harley returning to Blighty, the splendid The Candidate sold so poorly that EMI dumped what four years previously had been their major act. "Freedom's Prisoner" deserved to be an enormous hit, "Woodchopper" rhymes 'editorial' with 'accusatorial', and the soul-baring "One More Time" ruminates lasciviously on being taken from behind the leopardesses. Time surely for a little readjustment of history."^[19]

Record Collector magazine reviewed the BGO Records double album set of The Candidate and Hobo with a Grin albums. Reviewer Terry Staunton stated "Harley's opening brace of releases not to feature the Cockney Rebel name on their sleeves – not even as increasingly junior partners in his endeavours – took him ever further away from the glam/art rock of his chart past. As road maps to what he had in mind for the next stage of his career, they’re both a tad confused, arrows scrawled all over them in numerous directions. "Hobo with a Grin", from 1978, takes stabs at anything and everything. The following 1979 year's offering draws from just as big a notice board, but the musical thumbtacks are rarely strong enough to hold the ideas in place. "Audience with the Man" and "From Here to Eternity" suggest a love for early Springsteen, but with little of Bruce's energy or articulacy, "How Good It Feels" is passable Brit country, while "Freedom's Prisoners" sounds like synth-rock played by jet-lagged Cossacks."^[20]

Personnel

• Steve Harley – Vocals, Producer (all tracks), Writer (all tracks)
• Yvonne Keeley – Backing Vocals
• Jo Partridge, Phil Palmer – Guitar
• Nico Ramsden – Guitar, Backing Vocals
• John Giblin – Bass
• Joey Carbone – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
• Steve Gregory – Saxophone, Saxophone Arrangement
• Stuart Elliott – Drums
• Bryn Hawarth – Mandolin (track 1 only)
• The English Chorale – Choir (track 3 only)
• Robert Howes – Choir Director – Robert Howes (track 3 only)
• Jimmy Horowitz – Producer (all tracks), Writer (track 3 only), Celesta (track 2 only)
• Hayden Bendall, Tony Clark – Engineers
• Mike Hedges – Mixing
• Chris Blair – Mastering
• Mick Rock – Front Cover Photography
• Richard Young – Inner Sleeve Photography
• Ernie Thormahlen, Mick Rock – Design, Art Direction
• Graham Marks – Design (Lettering Front Cover)
• Billyee, Neal Kandel – Design (Inner Sleeve and Album Back Jacket Graphic & Design)

References