The Only Ones (album)

The Only Ones
Studio album by The Only Ones
Released	April 1978 (UK)
Genre	Power pop new wave punk rock
Length	33:49
Label	Columbia
Producer	The Only Ones Robert Ash
The Only Ones chronology
The Only Ones (1978) Even Serpents Shine (1979)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

The Only Ones is the debut studio album by English power pop band The Only Ones, released in 1978 by Columbia Records. It was produced by the Only Ones themselves, with the assistance of Robert Ash and was mixed at Basing St., Escape and CBS.

The album was re-released in Europe in 2009 on Sony Music Entertainment, featuring rare bonus content. The reissue was a CD which comprises 13-tracks. It includes the original album digitally remastered from the original 1/2" mix tapes; alongside three bonus tracks.

Critical reception

Trouser Press called it "the best of the three original albums" in which "Perrett's languid vocals and songs provide the character and focus, while the band's skills carry it off handsomely".^[2] Nevertheless, it is still widely admired by British critics. In 1994, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music named The Only Ones one of the 50 best punk albums of all-time. The compilers claimed that the Only Ones were "the closest thing the UK had to Johnny Thunder's Heartbreakers, a laconic, shamble of a band who were, at moments, touched by a creative greatness that made you get out of the glare".^[3]

Since the end of the 1990s, the album has also appeared on several all-time greatest albums lists.^[4][5][6]

Track listing

All tracks written by Peter Perrett.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Whole of the Law"	2:38
2.	"Another Girl, Another Planet"	3:02
3.	"Breaking Down"	4:52
4.	"City of Fun"	3:32
5.	"The Beast"	5:47

Side two
No.	Title	Length
6.	"Creature of Doom"	2:35
7.	"It's the Truth"	2:07
8.	"Language Problem"	2:28
9.	"No Peace for the Wicked"	2:51
10.	"The Immortal Story"	3:57
Total length:		33:49

2009 re-mastered version bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
11.	"Lovers of Today"	3:12
12.	"Peter and the Pets"	3:04
13.	"As My Wife Says"	1:53

Personnel

The Only Ones

• Peter Perrett – lead and background vocals; guitars; keyboards
• John Perry – guitars; keyboards
• Alan Mair – bass guitars
• Mike Kellie – drums

Session musicians

• Mick Gallagher – keyboards
• Gordon Edwards – keyboards
• Raphael & Friends – horns
• Koulla Kakoulli – backing vocals

Production team

• Robert Ash – producer; engineer
• The Only Ones – producers
• Ed Hollis – various engineering
• Steve Lillywhite – various engineering
• John Burns – various engineering
• Ian Maidman – various engineering
• John Dent – mastering engineer
• Peter "Kodick" Gravelle - cover photography

References

1. Deming, Mark. "The Only Ones > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
2. Robbins, Ira; Schinder, Scott. "Only Ones". TrouserPress.com. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
3. Larkin, Colin (1994). All Time Top 1000 Albums. Enfield: Guinness Publishing. p. 246. ISBN 0-85112-786-X.
4. Du Noyer, Paul (1998). Encyclopedia of Albums: 1,000 Best-Ever Albums. Bristol: Dempsey Parr. p. 163. ISBN 1-84084-031-5. This is their most satisfying, most focused collection, unsullied by the drugs and disillusionment that characterised their demise
5. Dimery, Robert (2005). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. London: Cassell. p. 401. Preferring flawed romance to fiery nihilism, Perrett peppered this 1978 debut with offerings of paranoid beauty
6. The Guardian (November 2007). 1,000 Albums To Hear Before You Die. London. Frontman Peter Perrett was living the Pete Doherty lifestyle long before the Libertine, but found time to add his trademark narcotic drawl to John Perry's skyscraping fretwork in songs as stratospheric as Another Girl, Another Planet. If Babyshambles sounded like this, they'd fill stadiums.

External links

• The Only Ones at Discogs (list of releases)