Released 24 April 1990 Length 53:22 Goodbye Jumbo(1990) Bang!(1993) Release date 24 April 1990 | Recorded 1987–1989 | |
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Nominations Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album Similar World Party albums, Rock music albums | ||
Goodbye Jumbo is the second studio album by British alternative rock band World Party. Originally released on 24 April 1990 on Ensign Records, the album was aided by a number of guest artists, including Sinéad O'Connor and frontman Karl Wallinger's former bandmates in The Waterboys. Its traditional rock sound – guitar, bass and drums – was augmented by piano, strings, flute and electronic percussion. The songs on Goodbye Jumbo follow the loose concept of an everyman's journey from lonely despair to spiritual fulfillment.
Contents
Goodbye Jumbo was voted as Album of the Year by Q magazine in 1990, with the album also receiving a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album the same year. In 2000, Q placed it at number 94 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. A remastered version of Goodbye Jumbo was reissued by Seaview Records on 4 April 2006.
"Way Down Now", the album's lead single, spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and follow-up single "Put the Message in the Box" reached number 8.
Critical reception
In a contemporary review for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot noted heavy influence from The Beatles in the album's "sense of pop and studio craft" and wrote that the biting humor and ironic viewpoint on life expressed in Wallinger's lyrics was balanced out by "memorable melodies and moments", calling all the album's songs "worth savoring." Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times felt that his "Lennonisms sound somehow endemic, not affected" and the wide range of musical influences on Goodbye Jumbo did not constitute "petty theft", stating that the album "comes together marvelously." Don McLeese of Rolling Stone wrote that Goodbye Jumbo "displays an ambition as broad as the emotional range of its music" and that while Wallinger's "missionary zeal occasionally belabors his messages", the album's music is "sufficiently vital to overpower resistance". Spin's Jon Young dubbed it as a "winning opus". One detractor was Robert Christgau of The Village Voice, who assigned the album a "dud" rating, indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought".
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Karl Wallinger.
- "Is It Too Late?" – 4:24
- "Way Down Now" – 3:49
- "When the Rainbow Comes" – 4:58
- "Put the Message in the Box" – 4:16
- "Ain't Gonna Come Till I'm Ready" – 5:05
- "And I Fell Back Alone" – 3:57
- "Take It Up" – 4:37
- "God on My Side" – 4:14
- "Show Me to the Top" – 5:15 (contains untitled hidden track beginning at 4:42)
- "Love Street" – 4:21
- "Sweet Soul Dream" – 4:39
- "Thank You World" – 3:47
Personnel
Credits for Goodbye Jumbo adapted from album liner notes.
Songs
1Is It Too Late4:25
2Way Down Now3:50
3When the Rainbow Comes5:00