Wilderness Is Paradise Now
Encyclopedia
Wilderness Is Paradise Now was the debut and only album
by Reading
based English
rock band
Morning Runner
. Preceded by the release of single
"Burning Benches
", the album was released on 6 March 2006, and, despite failing to make a significant impact commercially, it gained generally favourable review
s.
, translated from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
:
Ali Clewer, the band's drummer
, read the poem and believed it corresponded well with the album: "The poem describes a place that is a wilderness becoming paradise because of the person who is keeping you company, " Clewer explained, "a kind of optimism that seemed to resonate with many of the ideas on the album.”
was designed by Tappin Gofton
, who created the cover for Coldplay
's third album, X&Y
, and The Chemical Brothers
' Push the Button
.
The artwork was inspired by a small collection of Victorian
book illustrations. The kind of imagery that Tappin Gofton were looking at in these old volumes was noticeably decorative, with many of the pieces displaying strong narrative themes, and it was these two distinct elements that formed the foundations for their ideas. Once they had agreed on the overall thematic look for the covers and a set of ideas for each release, they commissioned the illustrator
Kam Tang
, who they collaborated with to produce the drawings for the artwork.
and Keane; The Guardian
's Caroline Sullivan talking of Morning Runner filling a "vacancy for a new Coldplay". However, some critics refuted these, with NME
's Paul McNamee saying "they're a band that could knock 10 bells out of Keane" and Phil Mongredien of Q
stating that a Coldplay comparison "would be doing Morning Runner a disservice." Mike Pattenden from The Times
said that it was the band's slower tracks which suggested that "Morning Runner are in it for the long haul." Ironically, the group disbanded in October 2007, before they could release a second 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...
by Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
based English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
Morning Runner
Morning Runner
Morning Runner was an alternative rock band from Reading, England. They released one album, Wilderness Is Paradise Now, following top 20 single "Burning Benches", before their split in late 2007 due to commercial pressures from their record label, Parlophone.- Origin and early years :Morning...
. Preceded by the release of single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Burning Benches
Burning Benches
"Burning Benches" is a song by English rock band Morning Runner and was the fourth track on their 2006 debut album Wilderness Is Paradise Now...
", the album was released on 6 March 2006, and, despite failing to make a significant impact commercially, it gained generally favourable review
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...
s.
Track listing
All tracks written by Ali Clewer, Tom Derrett, Matthew Greener and Chris Wheatcroft.- "It's Not Like Everyone's My Friend" – 4:09
- "Have a Good Time" – 3:44
- "Gone up in FlamesGone up in Flames"Gone Up in Flames" is the debut single by the English rock band Morning Runner, first released on 1 August 2005. It reached number 39 on the United Kingdom Singles Chart. The song was featured on the band's debut album, Wilderness Is Paradise Now, released in March 2006.The song contains three...
" – 2:53 - "Burning BenchesBurning Benches"Burning Benches" is a song by English rock band Morning Runner and was the fourth track on their 2006 debut album Wilderness Is Paradise Now...
" – 4:07 - "Hold Your Breath" – 4:01
- "OceansOceans (Morning Runner song)"Oceans" is a song by English rock band Morning Runner and was featured on their debut album, Wilderness Is Paradise Now. It was released on 14 August 2006 and was the band's final single ....
" – 3:42 - "The Great Escape" – 3:51
- "Be All You Want Me to BeBe All You Want Me to Be"Be All You Want Me to Be" is a song by English rock band Morning Runner and was featured on their debut album, Wilderness Is Paradise Now. It was released 24 October 2005 as the band's second single, charting at #44 in the UK Singles Chart .The song has been credited by Chris Martin as being...
" – 4:41 - "Punching Walls" – 4:04
- "Work" – 4:02
- "Best For You" – 3:33
Bonus tracks (Japan)
- "Can't Get It Right"
- "Them Folk" (from the Burning Benches UK single)
- "Burning Benches" (video) (from the Burning Benches UK single)
Conception
- "Gone up in Flames" contains three narratives: a racetrack loser, a devastated mourner, and a possessive consumer. "They are all pictures of desperation," explained lead singer Matthew Greener, "I got told this story about a woman so obsessed with this pearl that she sold all her possessions just to own it."
- "Burning Benches" was according to the band, not so much about love as it was about obsession. Greener said, "It sounded a bit too lovely, which is why we made it louder towards the end, we wanted to mess it up a bit." It was inspired by the surreal David LynchDavid LynchDavid Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
horror filmHorror filmHorror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
EraserheadEraserheadEraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist film and the first feature film of David Lynch, who wrote, produced and directed. Lynch began working on the film at the AFI Conservatory, which gave him a $10,000 grant to make the film after he had begun working there following his 1971 move to Los Angeles...
, in which the main character Henry Spencer watches and listens to the Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven.
- "Be All You Want Me to Be" was credited by Chris MartinChris MartinChristopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
as being inspiration for ColdplayColdplayColdplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
's third album, X&YX&YX&Y is the third studio album by English rock band Coldplay, released 6 June 2005 in the United Kingdom via the record label Parlophone. The album, which features influences of electronic music, was produced by the band and British record producer Danton Supple...
. He said in NMENMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, "I heard one of their songs called 'Be All You Want Me To Be' and I said, 'Fuck, that's better than most, no all, of our songs', and then it made us write a whole bunch of new tunes." Morning Runner supported Coldplay on some of their Twisted Logic TourTwisted Logic TourThe Twisted Logic Tour was a global concert tour in support of Coldplay's third album, X&Y. The year-long tour took the band across Europe and their native United Kingdom, as well as to the United States and Canada. The tour concluded in July 2006 with dates in Australia, South East Asia and Japan...
dates. The song was at one point considered not to be album material. "It's quite full-on and bold", stated pianistPianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Chris "Fields" Wheatcroft, "We did struggle with where to put it on the album." However, it was decided that the song would be on the album "to bring it back up again", following the track "The Great Escape".
- "Punching Walls" was the first song that the band wrote. A demo versionDemo (music)A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of the song was a B-side to 2006 single "Oceans".
- "Work" was written following Greener's father being made redundant.
Naming of the album
The name of the album came from a romantic rhyme by Edward FitzGeraldEdward FitzGerald (poet)
Edward FitzGerald was an English writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The spelling of his name as both FitzGerald and Fitzgerald is seen...
, translated from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
:
-
- Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
- A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
- Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
- And Wilderness is Paradise now.
Ali Clewer, the band's drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
, read the poem and believed it corresponded well with the album: "The poem describes a place that is a wilderness becoming paradise because of the person who is keeping you company, " Clewer explained, "a kind of optimism that seemed to resonate with many of the ideas on the album.”
Cover art
The album's cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
was designed by Tappin Gofton
Tappin Gofton
Tappin Gofton is a graphic design duo consisting of Mark Tappin and Simon Gofton. They are best known for their ambiguous cover for the Coldplay album X&Y and their 1960s-style cover for The Chemical Brothers' album Push the Button, and their cover for The Chemical Brothers' album We Are The Night...
, who created the cover for Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
's third album, X&Y
X&Y
X&Y is the third studio album by English rock band Coldplay, released 6 June 2005 in the United Kingdom via the record label Parlophone. The album, which features influences of electronic music, was produced by the band and British record producer Danton Supple...
, and The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.- Background...
' Push the Button
Push the Button (Chemical Brothers album)
Push the Button is the fifth studio album by English big beat band The Chemical Brothers, first released in January 2005. It won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album in January 2006...
.
The artwork was inspired by a small collection of Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
book illustrations. The kind of imagery that Tappin Gofton were looking at in these old volumes was noticeably decorative, with many of the pieces displaying strong narrative themes, and it was these two distinct elements that formed the foundations for their ideas. Once they had agreed on the overall thematic look for the covers and a set of ideas for each release, they commissioned the illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
Kam Tang
Kam Tang
Kam Tang is an illustrator living and working in Brixton, London. His work is described as maximalist. After earning his degree from the University of Brighton he went on to do a masters at the Royal College of Art. Since graduating he has worked as a freelance creative...
, who they collaborated with to produce the drawings for the artwork.
Critical reaction
The album was generally seen as a strong debut by critics on release. On the negative side, the band suffered occasional accusations that they were too similar to other piano-driven bands, such as ColdplayColdplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
and Keane; The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
's Caroline Sullivan talking of Morning Runner filling a "vacancy for a new Coldplay". However, some critics refuted these, with NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
's Paul McNamee saying "they're a band that could knock 10 bells out of Keane" and Phil Mongredien of Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
stating that a Coldplay comparison "would be doing Morning Runner a disservice." Mike Pattenden from The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said that it was the band's slower tracks which suggested that "Morning Runner are in it for the long haul." Ironically, the group disbanded in October 2007, before they could release a second album.
Release details
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom 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... |
6 March 2006 | Parlophone Parlophone Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which... |
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 ,... |
356 0972 |
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
15 March 2006 | Toshiba-EMI Toshiba-EMI (formerly , is one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. in June 30, 2007 after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. The current CEO and president is San-e Ichii. When EMI Music Japan was trading as Toshiba-EMI, it was... |
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 ,... |
TOCP-66498 |