Fourth Drawer Down
Compilation album by
the Associates
ReleasedOctober 1981
Genre
Length1:04:26 (reissue)
LabelSituation Two
Producer
The Associates chronology
The Affectionate Punch
(1980)		 Fourth Drawer Down
(1981)		 Sulk
(1982)

Fourth Drawer Down is a compilation album by Scottish post-punk and new wave band the Associates, released in October 1981 by independent record label Situation Two. It compiles the A- and B-sides from the six singles the band released that year on the label. The album was re-issued in 2000 by V2 Records, containing five bonus tracks.

Recording

In July 1981 the Associates appeared in Smash Hits magazine with lead vocalist Billy Mackenzie announcing his plan to release ten singles over the remainder of the year.[4] His ambition was founded on a plan to use competing label money to record new material then release previously recorded material.[5] Many of the songs that appeared on Fourth Drawer Down had a notably darker and more experimental edge than their debut studio album The Affectionate Punch (1980), although Mackenzie's lyrics often defied literal interpretation. An early single "Tell Me Easter's on Sunday" is propelled by a somber pulsing beat with a cycling mournful guitar line. The song "Q Quarters" — called "desolately beautiful" by Smash Hits[6] — ends with the striking lines: "Washing down bodies / Seems to me a dead-end chore / Floors me completely / Beauty drips from every pore". Washing down bodies was a job that Billy Mackenzie said his grandmother did during World War II.[7] The song "Kitchen Person" features a rhythm taken from an electric typewriter and Mackenzie singing down the tube of a vacuum cleaner (an effort that earned them Single of the Week in Melody Maker).[5]

The album title had a literal origin: the fourth drawer down in a chest in the band's flat at the time contained their supply of "over the counter herbal relaxant tablets that when taken by the handful... would acts as a sleeping aid as well as producing a pleasant bedtime buzz."[5] The cover photograph was taken in the swimming pool of the recording studio they used in Oxfordshire.[5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Mojo[9]
Q[10]
Record Collector[11]
Smash Hits7/10[12]
Uncut8/10[3]

Fourth Drawer Down has been well received by music critics, with reviewers commenting on the band's increased experimentalism. NME journalist Richard Cook wrote that the Associates "brutalise form with a purpose," continuing: "In trying to dismantle the accepted notions of organised playing and reconstructing with uncaring regard for accessibility – all these tracks are cluttered, confused and strewn with near-random noise – The Associates reassert their humanity in electric music."[13]

In a 2016 review, Alastair McKay of Uncut called Fourth Drawer Down "an extraordinary document on which the sense of mystery deepens, and the commitment to sonic experiment becomes more pronounced."[3] Trouser Press noted an overall sense of "determined experimentation" on the album, despite finding it "lessened by the exclusion of certain B-sides in favor of later tracks which reveal Mackenzie's growing preference for pose over accomplishment."[14]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."White Car in Germany"5:28
2."A Girl Named Property"4:56
3."Kitchen Person"4:53
4."Q Quarters"4:55
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."Tell Me Easter's on Friday" 4:29
6."The Associate"
5:00
7."Message Oblique Speech" 5:35
8."An Even Whiter Car" 4:45
2000 CD reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
9."Fearless (It Takes a Full Moon)"3:37
10."Point Si"5:15
11."Straw Towels"5:16
12."Kissed"6:11
13."Blue Soap"3:52

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the Fourth Drawer Down liner notes.[15]

The Associates

Production and artwork

References

  1. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (2 April 2009). Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571252275. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Robbins, Ira (1983). The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records. p. 12. ISBN 9780684179438. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 McKay, Alastair (June 2016). "The Associates: The Affectionate Punch / Fourth Drawer Down / Sulk". Uncut. No. 229. pp. 85–87.
  4. ↑ Milligan, Mark (9 July 1981). "Independent Bitz". Smash Hits. 3:14: 43.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Doyle, Tom (2011). The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy Mackenzie. Edinburgh: Polygon.
  6. ↑ Starr, Red (9 July 1981). "Single Reviews". Smash Hits. 3:14: 40.
  7. ↑ Black, Johnny (18 March 1982). "The Art of Parties". Smash Hits. 4:6: 5.
  8. ↑ Kellman, Andy. "Fourth Drawer Down – The Associates". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Segal, Victoria (June 2016). "Personal record". Mojo. No. 271. p. 105.
  10. ↑ Quantick, David (July 2016). "Track Records". Q. No. 360. pp. 116–17.
  11. ↑ Waring, Charles (June 2016). "The Associates – The Affectionate Punch, Fourth Drawer Down, Sulk". Record Collector. No. 454. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  12. ↑ Dellar, Fred (21 January – 3 February 1982). "Associates: Fourth Drawer Down". Smash Hits. Vol. 4, no. 2. p. 17.
  13. ↑ Cook, Richard. "Unlimited Company". NME. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  14. ↑ Green, Jim; Aswad, Jem. "Associates". Trouser Press. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  15. ↑ Fourth Drawer Down (CD booklet). the Associates. Situation Two. 1981.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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