Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Rolling Stone[3]

So Much Water So Close to Home is an album by Australian rock band Paul Kelly and the Messengers and was originally released in August 1989.[4][5] The title comes from a short story of the same name by author Raymond Carver.[6] Carver died in August 1988.[7] Kelly co-wrote the score for the 2006 Australian film Jindabyne, [8] which was also based on the same story.[6] The entire album was recorded in the U.S. with producer Scott Litt,[5] best known for his work with R.E.M. It was released on Mushroom/White Records in Australia & New Zealand and A&M Records for the rest of the world.[5] The album peaked at #10 on the ARIA album charts,[9] but none of its singles, "Sweet Guy", "Careless" and "Most Wanted Man in the World" had any Top 40 chart success.[9] All tracks for the album were written by Kelly,[10] who provided vocals, guitar and harmonica and also co-produced with Litt.[5]

Background

Paul Kelly had formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls in 1985, named for a group mentioned by Lou Reed in "Walk on the Wild Side".[4][5][11] For international releases from 1987 on, they used the name Paul Kelly and the Messengers to avoid possible racist interpretations.[4][11] They released Gossip in 1986 on Mushroom Records in Australia and in 1987 on A&M Records for international release.[5] Under the Sun was released in 1987 in Australia and in 1988 internationally.[5]

Their next album, So Much Water So Close to Home was released in 1989 as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers in all markets.[5] It peaked at #10 on the ARIA album charts,[9] but none of its singles reached the ARIA Top 40 Singles charts.[9] The entire album was recorded in the U.S. with producer Scott Litt,[5] best known for his work with R.E.M. Litt had re-mixed some of Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls' tracks from Gossip for its US release as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers.[4][5] So Much Water So Close to Home was released on Mushroom/White Records in Australia and A&M Records in the United States and Europe in 1989.[5]

The title comes from a 1975 short story of the same name by author Raymond Carver[6] (later collected in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love). Album track, "Everything's Turning to White" is based on Carver's short story,[12] it describes the tale of recreational fishermen who find a dead woman's body but continue their trip for three days before reporting their discovery to police.[13] Kelly would go on to co-write the score for the 2006 Australian film Jindabyne,[8] which was also based on the same story.[6] In 1991 Paul Kelly and the Messengers released their next album Comedy.[4][5]

Track listing

All tracks written by Paul Kelly.[10]

Side 1

  1. "You Can't Take It with You" – 2:43
  2. "Sweet Guy" – 3:38
  3. "Most Wanted Man in the World" – 3:38
  4. "I Had Forgotten You" – 2:59
  5. "She's a Melody (Stupid Song)" – 4:31
  6. "South of Germany" – 3:16

Side 2

  1. "Careless" – 2:57
  2. "Moon in the Bed" – 3:03
  3. "No You" – 4:19
  4. "Everything's Turning to White" – 4:11
  5. "Pigeon/Jundamurra" – 2:03
  6. "Cities of Texas" – 3:40

Personnel

Paul Kelly and the Messengers

Additional musicians

Recording details

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1989) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[14] 10
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[15] 26

Year-end charts

Chart (1989) Position
ARIA Albums Chart[16] 87

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[16] Gold 35,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "Australian Music Report No 795 – 23 October 1989 > Singles: New Releases". Australian Music Report. Retrieved 30 October 2020 – via Imgur.com.
  2. ^ AllMusic review
  3. ^ Rolling Stone magazine review
  4. ^ a b c d e McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Paul Kelly'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-768-2. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Holmgren, Magnus. "Paul Kelly". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d "Jindabyne movie bios". Sony Films. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  7. ^ "Literary Encyclopedia: Raymond Carver". The Literary Dictionary Company Limited. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  8. ^ a b "Jindabyne (2006) - Full cast and crew". Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  9. ^ a b c d "Discography Paul Kelly". Australian Charts Portal. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  10. ^ a b "Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search engine". APRA. Retrieved 2 November 2008. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU
  11. ^ a b Jenkins, Jeff; Ian Meldrum (2007). Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic.: Wilkinson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
  12. ^ Farber, Jim (2 November 1989). "Paul Kelly: So Much Water So Close to Home". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  13. ^ DeGagne, Mike. "So Much Water, So Close to Home Overview". allmusic. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
  14. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Paul Kelly – So Much Water So Close to Home". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  15. ^ "Charts.nz – Paul Kelly – So Much Water So Close to Home". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  16. ^ a b "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Albums Chart – 1989 (61–100)". imgur.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016. N.B. The triangle symbol indicates platinum certification.
Allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Much_Water_So_Close_to_Home
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