Jane from Occupied Europe
1980 studio album by Swell Maps
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Jane from Occupied Europe is the second and final album by the English post-punk band Swell Maps. It was released in 1980 by Rather Records and Rough Trade. In 1989, the album was reissued with eight bonus tracks by Mute, and this edition was subsequently reissued in 2004 by Secretly Canadian.
| Jane from Occupied Europe | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 16 August 1980 | |||
| Recorded | June 1979 â May 1980 (WMRS, Leamington Spa), except "Mining Villages" July 1977 ("at home"), "Epic's Trip" & "Big Empty Field (No. 2)" March 1980 (London) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:17 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Swell Maps | |||
| Swell Maps chronology | ||||
| ||||
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Pitchfork | 8.2/10[3] |
| Record Mirror | [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10[6] |
| Uncut |  [7] |
In 2016, Paste ranked Jane from Occupied Europe at number 42 on its list of the best post-punk albums.[8] In 2018, Pitchfork listed it as the 165th best album of the 1980s. Pitchfork's Judy Berman wrote: "Swell Maps pasted mostly incomprehensible, drawled vocals into noisy, krautrock-inspired sound collages, straying further beyond the boundaries of any existing genre with each release. Their second album, Jane from Occupied Europe, marked the culmination of that trajectory. It was, most of all, a catalog of thrilling new sounds".[1]
Track listing
Songs without writer credits are credited on all editions as being collectively written by Swell Maps.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Robot Factory" |
| 2:27 |
| 2. | "Let's Buy a Bridge" | Nikki Sudden | 1:55 |
| 3. | "Border Country" | Sudden | 2:12 |
| 4. | "Cake Shop" | Jowe Head | 2:25 |
| 5. | "The Helicopter Spies" | Nikki Sudden | 4:20 |
| 6. | "Big Maz in "The Desert from the Trolley"" | 5:11 | |
| 7. | "Big Empty Field" |
| 3:44 |
| 8. | "Mining Villages" |
| 1:01 |
| 9. | "Collision with a Frogman vs. The Mangrove Delta Plan" | 8:06 | |
| 10. | "Secret Island" | Nikki Sudden | 4:34 |
| 11. | "Whatever Happens Next...." | Nikki Sudden | 2:58 |
| 12. | "Blenheim Shots" | Nikki Sudden | 3:42 |
| 13. | "A Raincoat's Room" | Epic Soundtracks | 1:42 |
| Total length: | 44:17 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14. | "Let's Build a Car" | Nikki Sudden | 3:06 |
| 15. | "Epic's Trip" | Epic Soundtracks | 0:55 |
| 16. | "Secret Island" | Nikki Sudden | 6:27 |
| 17. | "Amphitheatres" | 2:56 | |
| 18. | "Big Empty Field (No. 2)" |
| 2:59 |
| 19. | "The Stairs are Like an Avalanche" | 4:04 | |
| 20. | "...then Poland" | 0:52 | |
| 21. | "New York" | Nikki Sudden | 3:19 |
Personnel
- Epic Soundtracks (Kevin Godfrey) â drums (1â7,9â12), organ (1,10), toys (1,6,7), backing vocals (2,5,10,11), piano (3,6,9,13), handclaps (5,9), violin (6), mumbling (6,13), guitar (7), saxophone (7), concrete (8), typewriter (8)
- Nikki Sudden (Adrian Godfrey) â guitar (1â5,9â12), toys (1,6), vocals (2,3,5,10â12), organ (4,12), handclaps (5,9), bass (6), eiderdown (6), mumbling (6), piano (11)
- Jowe Head (Stephen Bird) â guitar (1,4,7), toys (1), bass (2â5,9â11), saxophone (2,7), backing vocals (2,3,10,11), vocals (4), pianoforte (6)
- Biggles Books (Richard Earl) â organ (1), toys (1,6), guitar (2,4â7,9â12), backing vocals (2,10), electric guitar (3), acoustic guitar (3), handclaps (5,9), vocals (5,11), mumbling (6), bass (7)
- Phones B. Sportsman (David Barrington) â guitar (5), twelve string guitar (6), violin (6), kazoo (8), vocals (8), handclaps (9), backing vocals (10)
- Golden Cockrill (John Cockrill) â handclaps (5), backing vocals (5), bass (12)
- Barry Gray â organ (2)