Imaginary Friend (Th' Faith Healers album)

Imaginary Friend
Studio album by
Th' Faith Healers
Released18 October 1993 (1993-10-18)
Recorded1993
GenreNoise rock
Length72:28
LabelToo Pure
Producer
  • Th' Faith Healers
  • Mark Freegard
Th' Faith Healers chronology
L'
(1992) 		Imaginary Friend
(1993) 		Peel Sessions
(2005)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Chicago Tribune[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide(2-star Honorable Mention)(2-star Honorable Mention)[3]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide[4]
Select4/5[5]

Imaginary Friend is the second and final studio album by English indie rock band Th' Faith Healers, released in 1993 by Too Pure.[6] It was released by Elektra Records in the United States.[7]

Critical reception

In a 1994 profile of Th' Faith Healers in Spin, journalist Jim Greer wrote that Imaginary Friend saw the band refining their groove-oriented noise rock sound and experimenting with more varied musical styles.[7] AllMusic critic Stewart Mason retrospectively characterised it as "darker and less manic" than their 1992 debut album Lido.[8] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide wrote that "songs stretch to their limits, and the overwhelming tension that the band is able to eke out of such a seemingly simplistic approach is a fascinating achievement."[4] Greil Marcus, in Artforum, wrote: "Using repetition, distance, and the sort of indecipherable echoes that still make Moby Grape's 'Indifference' feel unstable, the group works with negative space, creating it, filling it, then leaving it empty again."[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Th' Faith Healers (Tom Cullinan, Joe Dilworth, Ben Hopkin and Roxanne Stephen)

No.TitleLength
1."Sparklingly Chime"4:52
2."Heart Fog"6:53
3."See-Saw"3:18
4."Kevin"5:39
5."The People"7:12
6."Curly Lips"4:29
7."Everything, All at Once Forever / Everything... (Dub Edit)"40:08

Notes

  1. ^ Abebe, Nitsuh. "Imaginary Friend – Th' Faith Healers". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  2. ^ Kot, Greg (24 March 1994). "Th' Faith Healers: Imaginary Friend (Too Pure)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  3. ^ Christgau, Robert (2000). "Th Faith Healers: Imaginary Friend". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 408.
  5. ^ Perry, Andrew (December 1993). "Th' Faith Healers: Imaginary Friend". Select. No. 42. pp. 86–87.
  6. ^ "Th Faith Healers (UK)". Trouser Press. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  7. ^ a b Greer, Jim (March 1994). "Heal th' World". Spin. Vol. 9, no. 12. p. 19. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  8. ^ Mason, Stewart. "Th' Faith Healers". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  9. ^ Marcus, Greil (1 January 2015). Real Life Rock: The Complete Top Ten Columns, 1986-2014. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300196641 – via Google Books.