Small Time (album)

Small Time is the second and final album by English indie band The Servants. It was recorded in 1991 but had to wait twenty-one years for release: a “lost second album that had been gathering dust for half a generation.”[1]

Small Time
Studio album by
The Servants
ReleasedOctober 2012 (2012-10)
Recorded1991
Studio9 First Avenue, Hayes, Middlesex;
9 Cannon Road, Southgate, London
GenreIndie
Art rock
Length42:38
LanguageEnglish
LabelCherry Red
ProducerDavid Westlake
Luke Haines
The Servants chronology
Disinterest
(1990)		 ''Small Time''
(2012)

Cherry Red Records released Small Time in 2012, following the inclusion of The Servants’ first album, Disinterest, in Mojo magazine’s 2011 list of the greatest British indie records of all time.[2]

Recording

Luke Haines recalls the 1991 recording of Small Time:

Our work routine goes like this. [David] Westlake records a demo at home on his four-track machine, comprising rhythm guitar, bass-part, programmed drum machine, and vocals. He then brings the recording over to me, where on my machine we add overdubs – including lots of CAT synth, and in the case of “Everybody Has a Dream” the contents of the kitchen sink . . . these recordings, completed in the living room of my flat in Cannon Road, Southgate, are the album.[3]

The Servants played their final gig around the time of the recording, on 21 August 1991 at the Rock Garden, London WC2.

In 2012, the tapes were restored and the recordings mixed by Des Lambert: “A lot of time went into transferring and synchronising the tapes. Different parts were on different tapes recorded at minutely varying speeds, so it was a complex job marrying everything together.”[4]

Release history

Cherry Red Records issued Small Time in double-CD format in October 2012. The second disc – Hey Hey We're The Manqués – is a collection of first-album-era demos.

The album was reissued as a double-LP (omitting six tracks) in December 2013.[5]

Reception

The album was well received. In Mojo, Kieron Tyler said “It’s a sound and style that has to be heard, from a unique band that merits an instant reappraisal.”[6] In Record Collector magazine, Tim Peacock said the album had “an undernourished, if endearing demo-like quality” which showed “Westlake at his nervy, playful best.”[7] At PopMatters, Matthew Fiander called Small Time “the darker counterpart” to Disinterest.[8] Tim Sendra at AllMusic noted the album’s “wonderfully literate and off-kilter songcraft.”[9]

Small Time is David Westlake’s favourite Servants record: “I like the way of thinking expressed in the songs. How ‘Everybody Has A Dream’ answers the complaint ‘All you get is nowhere,’ by reasoning ‘Where is there to get?’”[4]

Luke Haines describes the songs on Small Time as “looser, more mysterious, strange and beautiful, [. . .] and sounding . . . like nothing else really.”[3]

Track listing

CD

LP

Personnel

Technical personnel
  • Des Lambert – tape restoration, mixing
  • Del Sozou – artwork, design

References
  1. Tassell, Nige (2022). Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids?: An Indie Odyssey. London: Nine Eight Books. p. 285. ISBN 978-1788705585.
  2. Prior, Clive (December 2011). "Greatest British Indie Records of All Time". Mojo Special Edition. Bauer. p. 123. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  3. Haines, Luke (2012). Small Time (booklet). The Servants. London: Cherry Red Records. p. 4. CDB RED 535.
  4. Strutt, Anthony (6 June 2014). "David Westlake interview". pennyblackmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  5. "The Servants – Small Time / Hey Hey We're The Manqués". discogs.com. 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  6. Tyler, Kieron (March 2013). "Early '90s indie oddity rescued from oblivion". Mojo. Bauer. p. 102. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  7. Peacock, Tim (January 2013). "Haines and able". Record Collector. Diamond Publishing. p. 100. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  8. Fiander, Matthew (January 2014). "The Servants: Small Time/Hey Hey We're The Manqués". PopMatters. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  9. Sendra, Tim (2013). "The Servants: Small Time/Hey Hey We're The Manqués". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
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