Spiders (album)

Space were formed in Liverpool in 1992 by vocalist and bass guitarist Tommy Scott, guitarist and co-vocalist Jamie Murphy and drummer Andy Parle and were initially inspired by The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix and The Who. Scott had been a familiar face on the Liverpool music circuit since the early 1980s; his first band, Hello Sunset, had been supported by an early line-up of The La's. Scott and Murphy had previously performed together in The Substitutes before renaming the band Space. Although most of the band were in their mid-20s, Murphy was only 17, and turned up to the band's first rehearsal session dressed in his school uniform.[11] Space recorded their debut single, "If It's Real", to fulfill a publishing deal they had signed with BMG. It was released on 5 July 1993 as a 12" single through Hug Records, set up by the band's long-time manager and supporter Mark Cowley, with artwork designed by Carl Hunter of The Farm. However, the trio were unhappy with the results, feeling it sounded 'generic' and too similar to other Liverpool bands at the time, and set out to find a new direction.

Whilst on tour, the band discovered the music of hip-hop group Cypress Hill, and quickly became attracted to their bass-driven grooves and use of sampling. Soon after, they decided to recruit Scott's friend and former bandmember in Hello Sunset, Franny Griffiths, who at the time was living and working at a nightclub in Ibiza, in joining the band on keyboards and electronics, establishing the band's trademark, multi-genre style. Although Griffiths was unimpressed by the demo tape that they had sent him, he agreed to join them on the condition that they start writing better material. According to Griffiths, he had to sell off his car in order to purchase his first sampler.[11]

Successful indie label Gut Records (who previously had chart hits with Right Said Fred on their sub-label Tug) paid attention to the band and offered them a deal in January 1995. The label booked Space a session with producer and The KLF collaborator Nick Coler to record what was to be their first single "Kill Me". The proposed B-side "Money", which was recorded in their friend David "Yorkie" Palmer's bedroom "for the price of a £5 electricity card" and mastered onto MiniDisc,[12] proved the more popular choice by the label, so the two songs were released as the double A-side single "Money / Kill Me", which was released in November that year through the sub-label Home. Although the single "left the shops as quickly as it had entered.",[11] it was received positively by the press and marked the start of the recording sessions for Spiders, with both songs reappearing on the album; however, "Money" was re-recorded.

Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, where the album was recorded.

The band recorded the entirety of Spiders in Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, between 1995 and 1996.[13] Stephen Lironi produced the album, with the exception of "Kill Me" which was produced by Ian Richardson and Nick Coler, a song which was also mixed and engineered by Alan Douglas[13] The other songs on the album were mixed by Jeremy Wheatley, who also engineered all the tracks except "Neighbourhood", which was engineered by Andy Kowalski.[13] Gerald Lynch performs as a guest percussionist on five of the album's songs, with Tony Pierce providing trumpet on "Dark Clouds" and "Charlie M".[13] It was subsequently mixed in three London studios; Air Lyndhurst, Olympic Studios and Mayfair Studios.[13]

Scott composed all of his songs for the album on bass guitar, namely a Framus 5/150 Star Bass and Vox Teardrop from the 1950s and 1960s. In 2018, Scott stated that he has a personal preference of using older instruments and equipment, saying "I was against effects back then, to tell you the truth. I’m not into being retro for its own sake, but basically I just couldn’t be arsed pressing loads of pedals. My sound just needed to be dubby. I took all the treble right off the amps". An Ibanez fretless bass was used in the recording of "Female of the Species" to emulate a double bass, as according to Scott, "it was the only way to get that sound. I was dead against it at first, because it seemed so naff and cheesy. At the time, only people who had their basses really high on their chests played those instruments".. "Female of the Species" was initially performed using a straight beat, until Griffiths came up with the idea to "stick scratching samples and a hip-hop swing underneath the track".[14] As such, in the studio's basement, Parle, using only one microphone ("the minimum of studio technology"), "merely bunged a load of delay on the resulting loop".[14] David "Yorkie" Palmer sang backing vocals on "Neighbourhood", although he had yet to officially join the band, though he assisted them in recording many of the album's B-sides.[15]

Opening song "Neighbourhood" is an "exotically-flavoured show tune" which features elements of "spy theme music"[21] and a "mish-mash of styles".[17] The song's lyrics concern of characters in the "neighbourhood" such as a "local tranvestite", a serial killer vicar, "the big butch queen" and "the folks who make a living off of crime - but are never there because they're all doing time".[21] "Mister Psycho" features "bizarre faux-Spanish accents",[22] whilst "Female of the Species" is an "ode to a female lover who practices witchcraft".[24] Andy Parle said "I think we would all agree that females have more intelligence than males. And that's what makes them more dangerous."[25] The "goofy number" has been described as "Burt Bacharach meets alternative lounge music" which is "sprinkled with some xylophones" and contains a background of "Mexican cha-chas".[21] "Money" is an oom-pah-inspired track with a vocal delivery derived from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera.

"Me & You Vs the World", with lyrics inspired by 1994 film Natural Born Killers, is said to emulate the "early British pop of the 60's in that same vein as the Kinks and Herman's Hermits".[21] Reviewer Todd Martens, who called it the "most pop-infected tune on the album," described the song as a "sweepingly cinematic coming-of-age tale about two star-crossed lovers turning to crime easily breaks free of conventional pop form without disrupting the song in the slightest. Scott lurches into a spoken-word verse when the narrator gets shot, and the music all but stops except for a hazy and slow pulsating techno throb. The guitars suddenly rise at just the right moment and turn the tune back into the catchy-as-heck pop melody that finishes with a couple happy to go to hell together."[26]

"Love Child of the Queen", a tongue-in-cheek guitar pop song, is the first of three consecutive tracks written and sung by Jamie Murphy.[16] "No-One Understands" is a "satirical lament" according to Johnny Cigarettes of NME,[16] which features "overly mixed guitars" which make the song "maddeningly and engrossingly repetitive",[26] whilst "Voodoo Roller" takes inspiration from the 1995 film The Usual Suspects. "Drop Dead" is a funk rock track sung from the point of view of a celebrity stalker,[27] whilst "Dark Clouds" is an ironic "holiday siesta" featuring a trumpet solo."[27]

"Major Pager" concerns then-Prime Minister John Major "selling E's to the Russians", a lyric that made musical journalist Colin Larkin surprised that the band didn't end up receiving litigation."[28][29] "Charlie M." is a "Charles Manson fantasy"[22] which features "Mickey Mouse screwing Minnie".[29] The closing track, "Growler" is a techno instrumental composed and performed by Griffiths alone that uses a prominent voice sample of Cheech and Chong from the film Up in Smoke; writing of the track, Consumable Online said "it doesn't hit 160 beats a minute, but it could easily fit in at a rave.[21] The album's title track is a hidden track at the end of American editions of the album. The song concerns Scott's girlfriend's arachnophobia; Scott explained "that song is about me girlfriend. Basically, I know that she's terrified of spiders but if anyone, like say you come up and tried to hit me, she'd kill ya. She's not frightened of anything in the world except spiders."[22] Journalist Stuart Bernan explained "that's Tommy for ya, expressing his romantic side by playing on his girlfriend's worst fear."[22] Imprint magazine said the song offers "some sound relationship advice which might not sit too well with any of Space's male fans who value their testicles".[28]

Spiders was released by Gut Records in the United Kingdom on 16 September 1996.[5] In the United States, it was released by Gut and Universal Records on 14 January 1997.[30] Scott chose to adorn the album artwork with numerous tarantulas, which also gives the album its title; he explained "some people can't even put the CD on the [player]. They have to get their friends to put on the CD for them. The reason we put it on the LP cover is simply just to test our fans, because we know there's loads of people who are terrified by spiders, and if they really love us that much, they'll still go out and buy it."[22]

In the words of Dotmusic, "Space's idiosyncratic pop sensibility coupled with Gut's marketing approach has proved to be a winning combination."[31] The label was used to "working with acts that don't necessarily seek to conform", and, having started life as a plugging company, "its reputation in this field has helped to harness Radio One support for the singles and secure TV appearances on shows such as Chris Evans' TFI Friday".[31] Due to the small size of Gut, the entire label's staff "[pulled] out all stops" for the album.[31] Guy Holmes, managing director of Gut, was pleased with the album's success; in late 1996 he stated "it's been brilliant, absolutely fantastic. It's all about building a band properly without any hype and letting the records speak for themselves. With 120,000 albums sold, what more can you say?"[31]

In the United States, some pipped Spiders as a potential success in the advance of electronica, and especially rock bands that mixed electronica with rock instrumentation; in February 1997, the Daily Trojan commented that "the electronic onslaught is underway, and if U2's Pop successfully brings techno to mainstream rock audiences, Space deserves more than a cut of the crowd."[19] The band were not expecting any American success, concerned that Spiders "might sound too European" due to "its dance beats, fuzzy guitar, and singer Tommy Scott's jaunty vocals".[32] The album nonetheless found a small audience in the United States because of the band's college radio following, with the band receiving heavy rotation on small American radio stations in early 1997,[33] and "Female of the Species" being popular on MTV and college radio.[34] The first 15,000 American copies came with a bonus disc featuring songs only released in the UK.[35][30]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[43]
Austin Chronicle	[44]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[45]
Los Angeles Daily News	[46]
NME	7/10[16]
The Great Rock Discography	7/10[47]

A commercial success, spurred on by the success of it singles, Spiders reached number 5 on the UK Albums Chart[6] and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry in December 1996 for sales of over 300,000 copies.[5] A strong seller for a year after its release, it spent 54 weeks on the chart.[6] The album also peaked at number 133 in Australia,[7] number 45 in New Zealand in May 1997,[8] and number 35 in Finland.[9] The album was also successful in Asia.[41] The band's best-selling album, Spiders sold an estimated 800,000 copies between 1996 and 1998.[10]

Spiders was also a critical success, with critics praising its unique sound and unusual lyrics. In the United Kingdom, the band received praise from popular music magazines, including Q and Select. The NME rated the album seven out of ten and said "Space are worthy of a superlative that is all too rare in new British pop right now. No, not 'novelty'. Just 'unique'." The reviewer found it unusual for a Northwest band to employ "wit, irony and humour".[16]

The album was also well received by American critics. Todd Martens of the Daily Trojan said that "almost every track on this album contains something worth admiring."[48] Jonathan Dale of the UWO Gazette said that, "regardless of what the interpretation is, Space creates original sounds that, despite the images surrounding it, will always remain witty, whimsical pop that everyone deserves to hear...despite certain phobias."[49]

Later commentary on the album has also been positive. Alex Henderson of AllMusic, in a retrospective review, was largely favourable, calling it "quirky and often highly clever" and "one of the most appealing alternative rock releases of 1996".[50] He praised their "enjoyably twisted sense of humour" and said that, although "the rockers can be overly self-indulgent," Space, "like Frank Zappa and George Clinton, generally use their eccentricity advantageously".[43] The album was highlighted as an "Album Pick" on the website.[43] Writer Colin Larkin rated the album three stars out of five in his 2000 book The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music.[51]

The album has been features in critics' lists of the best albums of 1996 and in some cases of all time. At the end of 1996, Select ranked Spiders at number 23 in their list of the best albums of the year.[52] The album also ranked 9th in NME's readers poll of the 10 best albums of 1996.[53] In 1997, the album ranked 77th in Virgin Megastores' "Chart of the Century" poll of the 100 greatest albums of all time.[54] In 1998, the album ranked 551st in the updated version of the book All Time Top 1000 Albums, a list of the greatest albums of all time that was the result of over 200,000 votes cast by informed music lovers and ranked in order.[55] In 2017, Pitchfork ranked Spiders at number 41 in their list of "The 50 Best Britpop Albums".[56]

"Female of the Species" has also featured in critics' lists. Select named it the 6th best single of 1996.[52] It also ranked at number 40 in NME's list of the top 50 singles of 1996,[57] and The Face ranked it at number 9 in their own list of 1996's 50 greatest singles.[58] Les Inrockuptibles also included in their list of 1996's greatest singles,[59] as did Iguana, who ranked it 39th in their top 50 list.[60] It ranked number 75 in the Triple J poll of the best songs of 1997.[61] In 2013, NME ranked it at number 84 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Britpop Songs".[62] The track was chosen by producer Christine Langan after she heard it on The Chart Show.[63]

Having never been re-released, in 2014, NME included Spiders in its list of "30 Glorious Britpop Albums That Deserve a Reissue Pronto," with one reviewer commenting: "Just reel off those beauties – 'Neighbourhood', 'Me and You vs the World', 'Female of the Species' – it's imperative that a new generation of kids hears these songs. A group of rough and ready Scousers with deathless melodies to burn, Space could’ve been the new Beatles if anyone had thought to make that comparison."[64] In 2016, a limited edition picture disc vinyl of the album was made available on Record Store Day, 20 years after its original release. For its 25th anniversary in 2021, the album was once again reissued on yellow-coloured vinyl. Mister Psycho and Growler, two combat robots that were introduced in the sixth series of Robot Wars, took their names after songs from the album.

• Tommy Scott - Bass guitar, vocals
• Jamie Murphy - Guitar, vocals
• Franny Griffiths - Keyboards, synthesizers, sonic manipulations
• Andy Parle - Drums, percussion, loops

• "Spiders" article on SpaceTheBand.com