Neutronica is the fifteenth studio album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, and seventeenth album overall, from Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Donovan

Donovan

Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

. It was released in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 (RCA PL 28429) in August 1980 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (Barclay Records

Barclay Records

Barclay Records is a French record label founded in the mid-1950s by Eddie Barclay under the alias, Edouard Ruault. Eddie Barclay also founded the Riviera label in the early-1950s....

 BA 253 200149) in 1980.

History

After Donovan

Donovan (album)

Donovan is the fourteenth studio album, and sixteenth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the US in August 1977 and in the UK with a different track order in October 1977.-History:...

failed to chart in both the UK and US, Donovan once again left his long-time producer Mickie Most

Mickie Most

Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....

. He travelled throughout mainland Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, bringing attention to world hunger and protesting against nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...

 and weapons development. RCA

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 signed him for a European record distribution deal, beginning with Neutronica, released in 1980. The album did not receive distribution in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 or the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Many of the songs Donovan wrote for Neutronica are directly related to his political views. At the time, he was campaigning against what he viewed as disproportionate military spending while famine existed across much of the world. Donovan also recorded "Mee Mee I Love You", a song co-written by his daughter Astrella Leitch, and two war-themed songs – the traditional Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 tune "Heights of Alma" and Eric Bogle

Eric Bogle

Eric Bogle is a folk singer-songwriter. He emigrated to Australia in 1969 and currently resides near Adelaide, South Australia.-Career:...

's World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 "No Man's Land". The arrangements on Neutronica range from synthesizer-based rock songs to acoustic folk songs. Donovan's vocals similarly range from the harder singing style prevalent on Donovan

Donovan (album)

Donovan is the fourteenth studio album, and sixteenth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the US in August 1977 and in the UK with a different track order in October 1977.-History:...

on the rockers, and softer singing on the acoustic numbers.

Reissues

• On August 28, 2001, Pilot Records released Neutronica (Pilot 89) in the UK for the first time on CD
  Compact Disc
  The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
  
   with seven bonus tracks. The first two bonus cuts are concert recordings of "The Heights of Alma" and Buffy Sainte-Marie
  Buffy Sainte-Marie
  Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
  
  's "Universal Soldier". The next two bonus tracks, "Only to Be Expected" and "Split Wood Not Atoms", were acoustic demo recordings for Neutronica. The fifth and sixth bonus tracks are alternate versions of "Shipwreck" and "Madrigalinda" respectively. The last bonus track, "Fair Ye Well", is an a cappella
  A cappella
  A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
  
   song.

Side one

1. "Shipwreck" – 3:30
2. "Only to Be Expected" – 3:27
3. "Comin' to You" – 3:30
4. "No Hunger" – 2:44
5. "Neutron" – 2:05
6. "Mee Mee I Love You" (Donovan Leitch, Astrella Leitch) – 2:45

Side two

1. "The Heights of Alma" (traditional, arranged by Donovan) – 3:45
2. "No Man's Land" (Eric Bogle
   Eric Bogle
   Eric Bogle is a folk singer-songwriter. He emigrated to Australia in 1969 and currently resides near Adelaide, South Australia.-Career:...
   
   ) – 5:23
3. "We Are One" – 3:52
4. "Madrigalinda" – 2:47
5. "Harmony" – 2:16

2001 Pilot Records reissue

1. "Shipwreck" – 3:26
2. "Only to Be Expected" – 3:21
3. "Comin' to You" – 3:28
4. "No Hunger" – 2:44
5. "Neutron" – 2:05
6. "Mee Mee I Love You" (Donovan Leitch, Astrella Leitch) – 2:45
7. "The Heights of Alma" (traditional, arranged by Donovan) – 3:42
8. "No Man's Land" (Eric Bogle) – 5:20
9. "We Are One" – 3:46
10. "Madrigalinda" – 2:46
11. "Harmony" – 2:16

Bonus tracks

1. "Heights of Alma" (traditional, arranged by Donovan) – 3:33
2. "Universal Soldier" (Buffy Sainte-Marie
   Buffy Sainte-Marie
   Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
   
   ) – 2:38
3. "Only to Be Expected" – 2:40
4. "Split Wood Not Atoms" – 2:41
5. "Shipwreck" – 3:45
6. "Madrigalinda" – 2:44
7. "Fair Ye Well" – 1:50

External links

• Neutronica - Donovan Unofficial Site