The Tall Ships

The Tall Ships is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band It Bites.

The Tall Ships
Studio album by
It Bites
ReleasedOctober 2008
RecordedOuthouse Studios, Running Frog Studios
GenreProgressive rock, pop rock
Length1:09:09 (Normal Version)
1:15:12 (Japanese Version)
LabelThe It Bites Music Partnership
ProducerIt Bites
It Bites chronology
Eat Me in St. Louis
(1989)		 The Tall Ships
(2008)		 Map of the Past
(2012)

The Tall Ships was recorded following the relaunch of It Bites featuring a new singer & guitarist, John Mitchell. This lineup had toured successfully in 2006 and had released a live album called When the Lights Go Down on which they predominantly covered old material from the band's first lineup (bar one song, "Playground", written by the current band featuring Mitchell and which would be recorded again for The Tall Ships).

It Bites spent eight months writing and recording The Tall Ships, with writing duties predominantly handled by Mitchell and John Beck. The band's bass guitarist, Dick Nolan, did not contribute to recording sessions, and consequently, all bass guitar parts were played by Beck and Mitchell in what they would describe as an ...And Then There Were Three situation. Nolan would be asked to leave the band shortly before the release of the album and would be replaced by Lee Pomeroy.

The Tall Ships was released in 2008, nineteen years after the release of the band's previous studio album, Eat Me in St. Louis. Initially released by the band themselves, it subsequently gained a full release on the Inside Out label. Different versions of the album in different territories feature different bonus tracks - the European release bonus track is "When I Fall" and the Japanese release features "These Words". The album was very well received by both fans and critics, who hailed it as a remarkable comeback and praised Mitchell for his successful replacement of Francis Dunnery as the songwriter as well as simply performer.

In an interview, drummer Bob Dalton has explained the album's title as referring to the tall ships which "come to take your soul away after you die.".[1]

Track listing
  1. "Oh My God" (5:49)
  2. "Ghosts" (4:47)
  3. "Playground" (5:34)
  4. "Memory of Water" (4:51)
  5. "The Tall Ships" (6:19)
  6. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (8:14)
  7. "Great Disasters" (5:01)
  8. "Fahrenheit" (5:18)
  9. "For Safekeeping" (5:29)
  10. "Lights" (4:56)
  11. "This is England" (13:51)
  12. "When I Fall" (4:41) (European edition only)
  13. "These Words" (6:03) (Japanese special edition only)

Personnel
  • John Mitchell - lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar
  • John Beck - keyboards, backing & harmony vocals, bass guitar
  • Bob Dalton - drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel
  • Tim Turan - Mastering
  • Paul Tippett - Design, art direction, band photography

Charts
Chart (2009) Peak
position
Japanese Albums Chart[2] 140

References
  1. "Bob Dalton interview at Metal Experience"
  2. http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/41173/ranking/cd_album/
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