A Curious Feeling

A Curious Feeling is the début solo album from Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks. It was recorded at ABBA's Polar Music Studios during a brief Genesis hiatus and released in 1979 on Charisma Records. It is one of only two of Banks' solo albums to have entered the UK Albums Chart, reaching 21 and staying on the chart for five weeks.[1] The album is a loose adaptation of the 1966 Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon.[2] Its cover was designed by Hothouse and contains Wuluwait - Boatman of the Dead by Australian artist Ainslie Roberts. It was digitally remastered in 2009.

A Curious Feeling
Studio album by
Tony Banks
Released8 October 1979
RecordedSpring-Summer 1979
Polar Music Studios, Stockholm, Sweden
GenreProgressive rock
Length52:54
LabelCharisma
Charisma/Polydor (US/Canada)
Caroline (US)
ProducerTony Banks, David Hentschel
Tony Banks chronology
A Curious Feeling
(1979)		 The Wicked Lady
(1983)

History

The instrumental piece "From the Undertow" was used in the 1978 British film The Shout, for which Banks, with Mike Rutherford, composed the incidental music. No soundtrack of the film was released. The piece was originally intended to be the intro to "Undertow" from the Genesis album ...And Then There Were Three... (hence the title).

The album was re-released on 19 October 2009,[3] remixed from the original masters by Nick Davis, who also created a 5.1 DTS 96/24 surround mix which is available on the second disc of the deluxe edition.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Classic Rock[5]
Record Collector[6]

According to Banks himself, the album "got some extremely scathing reviews, I don't think they were fair" but he conceded "this was post-punk and this was really not the album that people wanted to hear".[7] Classic Rock reviewer Jerry Ewing agrees with Banks, writing that the album is made of "lush pastoral English prog rock that deserved better at the time" and is probably the musician's best solo effort.[5]

AllMusic gave a positive retrospective review, asserting that "Banks manages to capture the wonderment and allure that enveloped Genesis' Peter Gabriel days... yet he filters out the instrumental intricacies, unorthodox time signatures, and complex poetry which enveloped these works to create a milder but equally effective progressive realm." They praised the album for lacking the instrumental pretentiousness that most would have expected, instead focusing on strong progressive rock compositions.[4]

Track listing

All songs written by Tony Banks.

Vinyl, cassette and original CD release (Charisma CAS 1148)
Side one
  1. "From the Undertow" – 2:45
  2. "Lucky Me" – 4:23
  3. "The Lie" – 4:58
  4. "After the Lie" – 4:47
  5. "A Curious Feeling" – 3:58
  6. "Forever Morning" – 5:59
Side two
  1. "You" – 6:28
  2. "Somebody Else's Dream" – 7:45
  3. "The Waters of Lethe" – 6:27
  4. "For a While" – 3:32
  5. "In the Dark" – 2:52

2009 CD (Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2160)
  1. "From the Undertow"
  2. "Lucky Me"
  3. "The Lie"
  4. "After the Lie"
  5. "A Curious Feeling"
  6. "Forever Morning"
  7. "You"
  8. "Somebody Else's Dream"
  9. "The Waters of Lethe"
  10. "For a While"
  11. "In the Dark"

2009 DVD (Deluxe Limited Hardback Edition only - Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 22161)
5.1 Surround Sound mixes
  1. "From the Undertow"
  2. "Lucky Me"
  3. "The Lie"
  4. "After the Lie"
  5. "A Curious Feeling"
  6. "Forever Morning"
  7. "You"
  8. "Somebody Else's Dream"
  9. "The Waters of Lethe"
  10. "For a While"
  11. "In the Dark"
1979 promotional films
  1. "For a While"
  2. "The Waters of Lethe"

Personnel

Production
  • Produced by Tony Banks and David Hentschel
  • Recorded and engineered by David Bascombe and David Hentschel

Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1979 UK Albums Chart[1] 21
1979 US Albums Chart 171

References
  1. David Roberts British Hit Singles and Albums, Guinness World Records Limited.
  2. "Genesis News Com [it]: Tony Banks - A Curious Interview - 30th September 2009". www.genesis-news.com. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
  3. "Tony Banks - A Curious Feeling reissue!". 5 August 2009. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
  4. "A Curious Feeling". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
  5. Ewing, Jerry (February 2010). "Tony Banks - A Curious Feeling". Classic Rock. No. 141. p. 92.
  6. Marco Rossi Record Collector, February 2010, Issue 372.
  7. Interview with Tony Banks. Johnnie Walker's Sounds of the Seventies. BBC Radio 2. 29 June 2014
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