Swamp (album)

Album title

The album's title was named after Thornalley's own private studio Swamp Studios, located in Northwest London.

Background

Largely a songwriter and producer for a wide range of musical artists, Thornalley branched into his own solo material once, aside from a stand-alone single "So This is Love" from 1983.

In Thornalley's biography on his official website, he mentions the Swamp album, stating "At the studio I would stay 'after hours' to record my own songs and was signed to MCA in the USA and made my flop solo album Swamp. By this time, my childhood friend Mike Nocito had started the group Johnny Hates Jazz and invited me to join for their second album called Tall Stories. I realized that my passion was for writing songs; not performing them."

The track and single "Listen" was originally recorded by English pop band Johnny Hates Jazz for their own 1988 debut album Turn Back the Clock, where Thornalley co-produced the track and engineered/mixed the album. The album was a commercial success across Europe, peaking at #1 in the UK as well as #56 in America. Thornalley would replace lead singer Clark Datchler in 1989 for the flop single "Turn the Tide" and the unsuccessful album Tall Stories. The song also later appeared on the 2000 Johnny Hates Jazz compilation Best of the 80's.

"Love Me Like a Rock" was later recorded by Daniel John Ohm in 1989, where the song was released as a German single from Ohm's only album Time For Love. For the single, a "Rock Steady - Extended Version" was released along with the "Radio Version".

The track "Concentration" was part of the soundtrack to the 1989 film She's Out of Control, starring Tony Danza and Catherine Hicks. The soundtrack album for the film was released via MCA Records and featured the track.

Production and writing

Swamp was mainly produced by American songwriter/producer André Cymone and Thornalley, whilst Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins produced three tracks, remixed three tracks along with Thornalley and co-wrote the track "When I Get to Heaven" with British session musician/songwriter Jim Williams and Thornalley. Williams co-produced the track "Conversations" and co-wrote five of the album's tracks. Thornalley wrote four of the album tracks solely (as well as writing the CD bonus track "Milk and Diamonds" and had co-writing credit for the remaining album tracks.

Thornalley had worked frequently with Bailey before and after via the Thompson Twins.

Release

The album was released in America only on vinyl, cassette and CD, where all remain long out-of-print today.

The cassette version of the album featured a promotional sticker highlighting the fact that the album contains "Love Me Like a Rock", "Listen" and "Concentration".

The vinyl and cassette version of the album features ten tracks, whilst the CD features one bonus track titled "Milk and Diamonds".

The two singles from the album were released in America only. "Listen" was released on 7" vinyl, as well as a white label promo 7" vinyl. The b-side for this single was the non-album track "The Right Time". "Love Me Like a Rock" was released on 7" and 12" vinyl, both as commercial and promotional releases. The 12" version of the single featured "Love Me Like A Rock (12" Version)", "Love Me Like A Rock (7" Version)" and "Love Me Like A Rock (Dub Version)". For the 12" single, additional production and remixing was by Keith Cohen and Steve Beltran.

Another Cymone produced track "You Would Have Thought" didn't make the Album.

Personnel