🎵 AotW Peter Frampton - THE ART OF CONTROL (SP-4905)

[LPJim]

Peter Frampton
THE ART OF CONTROL
A&M SP-4905

SIDE ONE:

I Read the News 4:02
Sleepwalk 4:36
Save Me 3:48
Back to Eden 4:45

SIDE TWO:

An Eye for an Eye 3:50
Don't Think About Me 3:43
Heart in the Fire 4:28
Here Comes Caroline 3:41
Barbara's Vacation 3:15

Vocals, Guitar, Producer, Writer of Songs - Peter Frampton
Drums - Harry Stinson
Bass - John Regan
Vocals - John Dworken, Mark Goldenberg

Art Direction - Jeff Ayeroff
Cover Art - Norman Moore
Photos - Jules Bates (liner), Glen Wexler (cover), Gilbert Abonneau (computer)

Co-producer, engineer, mixer, vocals - Eddie Kramer

Entered the Billboard Top 200 on August 28, 1982
Peaked at # 174; charted for 8 weeks

JB

 

[Dave]

Arrrgh! Pretty much a forgettable, from when Frampton was forgotten!


-- Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This album got a raw deal out of the gate, with that awful-looking cover. I think A&M's marketers realized that he was "on the way out," saleswise, and just didn't care much anymore. Otherwise they would have remembered that a very large share of Frampton's fans were girls who thought he was cute. This cover (and that title) is designed to grab the attention of who? Boys fascinated with video games? I don't know. Anyway, the music must have been forgettable because I can't recall a note of this album, even though I remember owning it at one time.

 

[jfiedler17]

This is the only one of Frampton's A&M albums I've never heard. My A&M output of his stops at Breaking All the Rules, unfortunately. (Which I actually like, even if most critics don't. "Dig What I Say"'s a fun song, at least, and his cover of "Friday on My Mind" may be even more energetic and forceful than the Easybeats' original.)
I'd be really curious to hear this one, actually. I just can't remember ever running across a copy of it! Did this one even get a CD release? It doesn't seem to have been in print - even on LP - for very long. It's probably the most obscure non-promo item in his solo discography, I'd venture to guess.
Anyone here know what the single from this album was?

I think all of Frampton's '80s output, actually, kinda got a raw deal. Most music critics tend to write off pretty much any of his post-Comes Alive! work, but all my favorite studio albums of Frampton's, actually, come from those later years. There's just something about Frampton's earliest studio efforts that makes them really hard to listen to, even when the material's first-rate; Frampton (the studio album "Show Me the Way" and "Baby, I Love Your Way" first appeared on) is a perfect example of this - great songs, of course, but the production just doesn't breathe, and his vocals too often sound muffled or dampened to some degree (this problem would noticeably diminish on Where I Should Be - which itself got a raw deal and is similarly a better album than most critics tend to give it credit for, not in the least since it closes with what's easily Frampton's most underrated ballad, "It's a Sad Affair" - and would continue to improve from thereon out) but too few people were listening by that point to care, sadly.) Frampton's post-'70s output may have a slightly weaker ratio of hits-to-misses in the songwriting department, but I think that, sonically speaking, they make for much more pleasing listening experiences in terms of production and engineering. My favorite of his studio albums, actually, believe it or not, is When All the Pieces Fit from 1989 - it's no Comes Alive, no, but as far as studio albums go, it just breathes considerably more production-wise than any of his '70s output, and his vocals have never sounded more prominent or crystal-clear. (The songs are actually pretty good, too; "Holding on to You" and "Now and Again" are arguably his two best songs since "It's a Sad Affair.")

 

[Dave]

Premonition, which followed was an even more bleaker effort... Yes, When All The Pieces Fit did point to a slow, yet surer recovery, from a creative dead end & where critically & commercially, it all but ended Frampton's still-credible career...


-- Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

There is a great interview with Frampton on the "Here's The Thing" interview series. He talks about how amazed he was that "Comes Alive" was such a hit, considering some of the same songs "just laid there" in the studio versions. Given the great success he had with the live album I'm surprised he didn't do another one. (Of if he did, it sneaked under my radar!)

 

[Captain Bacardi]

He did release another live album back in the 90's: http://www.amazon.com/Frampton-Come...id=1386765293&sr=8-32&keywords=peter+frampton

Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mark-T]

My fav cut is his cover of Signed Sealed Delivered. I heard him do it live. It was amazing. (And its a great song to run to!)

 

[jfiedler17]

Ooh, good pick! I never hear that one on the radio anymore (it was a Top 40 hit for him, though, if I remember correctly), but he does do a great cover of that song. I don't remember if Stevie Wonder himself appears on that particular song, but I know that Stevie does appear on that album (I'm in You), as does Mick Jagger. Of all Frampton's studio albums from the '70s, that's the one I definitely listen to the most. The songs on that album are pretty catchy, even the throwaways like "Rocky's Hot Club."
Has he ever released a live recording of him doing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered"? I'd really love to hear that. I wasn't even aware that he ever did that one live.

 

[Mark-T]

Starts at about the 3 minute mark.