Strip (Adam Ant album)

Strip is the second solo studio album by Adam Ant, and his fifth studio album overall, counting his work with Adam and the Ants, released in 1983. Stylistically, it is a departure from Ant's previous musical efforts, being much less rock-oriented and more grounded in pop and dance. Ant continued his songwriting collaboration with Marco Pirroni for the album. Pirroni was also one of the main producers for the album, along with Richard James Burgess and Ant himself. The album did not perform as well in Ant's home country as his previous albums and performed modestly in the US. It received generally unfavorable reviews from critics.

Strip
Studio album by
Adam Ant
Released7th November 1983
RecordedSummer 1983 in Stockholm, Sweden
GenreNew wave
LabelColumbia
Producer
Adam Ant chronology
Friend or Foe
(1982)		 Strip
(1983)		 Vive Le Rock
(1985)
Singles from Strip
  1. "Puss 'n Boots"
  2. "Strip"

Production

Phil Collins plays drums on "Puss 'n Boots" and "Strip",[1] Collins also aided in production duties for the two tracks he played on, and enlisted Hugh Padgham to assist with the production and engineering of those sessions. Singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA fame, also performs the female spoken part on "Strip".

Content

The cover photograph was fashioned after actress Jane Russell's famous photo from Howard Hughes's 1943 film The Outlaw.

Release

The lead single from the album in Europe and Australia was "Puss 'n Boots", which continued the pantomime themes and fashions of Ant's earlier work. The single reached number 5 on the UK chart in 1983, becoming Ant's final UK top 10 hit, although other top 20 hits would follow. The title track, "Strip" was released as a single in 1984 and reached number 41 on the UK singles chart and number 42 in the U.S. "Puss 'n Boots" was also released as a single in the U.S., but failed to chart.[2] "Playboy" was planned to be the third single[3]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Smash Hits(6/10)[5]
Trouser Pressunfavourable[6]

From contemporary reviews, Ian Birch wrote in Smash Hits that the new songs on the album feature a "new and mush fresher style" from Adam Ant, specifically noting "more thoughtful writing, more adventurous arrangements" and "shaper singing while the "obsession with sex gets a bit ridiculous but if you keep a sense of humor, it soon fades into the background."[5]

Tour

An extensive tour of the U.S. was undertaken after the release. Ant settled on a deal with his tour manager, Michael Kleffman, that would give him a pay bonus if the album or the following album peaked within the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200.[7] Neither the album nor its follow-up, Vive Le Rock, managed to do so, with the former peaking at #65 and the latter peaking at #131.

Some performances of the tour can be found on YouTube. It was the biggest American tour of Ant's career, with dates in many cities, and was famous for the showmanship involved; this included a vine-covered bridge suspended above the audience, and a Houdini-style immersion tank, which Ant would jump in and emerge from wearing only black shorts – after "stripping" his stage costume off during the course of the show.

Track listing

All songs written by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni.

  1. "Strip" – 3:48
  2. "Baby, Let Me Scream at You" – 4:07
  3. "Libertine" – 4:19
  4. "Spanish Games" – 3:00
  5. "Vanity" – 4:08
  6. "Puss 'n Boots" – 3:52
  7. "Playboy" – 3:50
  8. "Montreal" – 4:23
  9. "Navel to Neck" – 3:41
  10. "Amazon" – 3:50
Additional tracks on the 2005 remaster
  1. "Strip" (Demo Version)
  2. "Dirty Harry" (Demo Version)
  3. "Horse You Rode in On" (Demo Version)
  4. "She Wins Zulus" (Demo Version)
  5. "Puss 'n Boots" (Demo Version)
  6. "Playboy" (Rehearsal)
  7. "Navel to Neck" (Rehearsal)
  8. "Strip" (Live)

Personnel
Technical
  • Hugh Padgham – production, recording, engineering
  • Anders Andersson – production assistance
  • Jean-Luc Fauvel – production assistance
  • Radu Wouk – production assistance
  • Mark Freegard - engineer
  • Michael B. Tretow – audio mixing
  • Allan Ballard - photography

References
  1. Inner sleeve of Strip album, CBS25705 - individual track credits are cited at the end of each lyric
  2. Discogs https://www.discogs.com/Adam-Ant-PussN-Boots/release/8161689. Retrieved July 21, 2019. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Goddard, Stuart (2006). Stand & Deliver: The Autobiography. Pan Books. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-330-44012-7.
  4. Strip at AllMusic
  5. Birch, Ian (November 10, 1983). "Albums". Smash Hits. Vol. 5 no. 23. p. 17.
  6. Young, Jon; Lewis, Kate; Rompers, Terry. "TrouserPress.com :: Adam Ant". TrouserPress.com. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  7. Goddard, Stuart (2006). Stand & Deliver: The Autobiography. Pan Books. p. 230. ISBN 978-0-330-44012-7.
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