Kirsty MacColl - Titanic Days (2CD) (1993)

Titanic Days is the fourth studio album by Kirsty MacColl, released in 1993. Containing eleven tracks, Titanic Days was sometimes hard to get in years after its release, but it was remastered and re-released in 2005 by ZTT with a second CD of non-album tracks and some live recordings, including a version of "Miss Otis Regrets". In 2012, another remastered re-issue of the album was released by Salvo/ZTT, which again featured a second disc of bonus tracks. 

Produced by then husband Steve Lillywhite, Titanic Days has it all: bright love song You Know It's You, tales of very bad men (to which MacColl seems drawn, at least in her lyrics) Titanic Days, Can't Stop Killing You, and Bad, and the sentimental melancholy of Soho Square. 

The airy, dreamy Angel and Tomorrow Never Comes are beautiful. Lillywhite's production and the backing of crack musicians help realize MacColl's most consistent songwriting, and her performances are both cool and riveting.

 Following the release of her third studio album Electric Landlady in 1991, MacColl continued to write songs that would be recorded for her follow-up release Titanic Days. 

However, in 1992, when Virgin was sold to EMI, MacColl was dropped from the label, leaving her new material to be recorded without a record deal. Much of the album, including vocals and overdubs, was recorded in MacColl's small home studio at Ealing, due to the limited budget. 

The musicians who appeared on the recordings, largely from MacColl's own live band, agreed to wait for payment for their contributions until a record deal was finalised. MacColl and her band spent two days at Townhouse Studios in London, where all the backing tracks were recorded.

The album was recorded over an approximate period of eighteen months. MacColl told Sunday Life in 1994: "In many ways this album was recorded back to front. I was writing songs, playing them live and knocking them into shape, then recording them for the album, when normally it would be the other way around."

When the album was completed, ZTT Records agreed to release the album as a one-off release. In the United States, the album was released by I.R.S. Records, which MacColl signed to after being introduced to the head of the label, Jay Boberg, as he happened to be the husband of a childhood friend.

During the time of writing and recording the album, MacColl's marriage to Steve Lillywhite was disintegrating. As such, much of album's material reflected MacColl's personal issues. She told Billboard in 1993: "There were big things happening in my life, and then every time you turned on the TV, there was a war going on and countries changing. 

It was such a strange period, it was so huge, that's why we called the album "Titanic Days"."

Disc 1

1. "You Know It's You" – 4:01
2. "Soho Square" – 4:25
3. "Angel" – 5:07  (MacColl)
4. "Last Day of Summer" – 4:22
5. "Bad" – 2:47 (MacColl)
6. "Can't Stop Killing You" – 4:12  (MacColl, Johnny Marr)
7. "Titanic Days" – 5:43
8. "Don't Go Home" – 4:11
9. "Big Boy on a Saturday Night" – 3:58
10. "Just Woke Up" – 4:02   (MacColl, Dave Ruffy)
11. "Tomorrow Never Comes" – 4:47

All tracks composed by Kirsty MacColl and Mark E. Nevin; except where indicated

Disc 2

1. "Angel" (Piano Mix) – 3:18  (MacColl)
2. "Fabulous Garden" – 3:15  (MacColl)
3. "King Kong" (Demo) – 3:57
4. "Dear John" (Demo) – 2:43
5. "Miss Otis Regrets"  (Recorded live at the Belly Up Club, Solana Beach, San Diego 1 Dec 93) – 3:03  (Cole Porter)
6. "Free World"  (Recorded live at the Belly Up Club, Solana Beach, San Diego 1 Dec 93) – 2:45 (MacColl)
7. "Touch Me" – 3:36  (MacColl, Pete Glenister)
8. "Irish Cousin" (Demo) – 4:48
9. "Angel" (Single Mix) – 3:42  (MacColl)
10. "Angel" (Stuart Crichton Remix) – 6:24  (MacColl)
11. "Angel" (Into the Light Mix) – 5:36  (MacColl)
12. "Angel" (Apollo 440 Remix) – 8:08  (MacColl)

Musicians

• Kirsty MacColl – vocals, guitar (3, 5), keyboards (6)
• Mark E. Nevin – guitar (1–11), bass (11), harmonium (11)
• Dave Ruffy – drums (1–3, 6, 7, 9, 10), programming (3, 10)
• Gary Tibbs – bass (1–3, 5–7, 9, 10), backing vocals (9)
• Pete Glenister – guitar (1–3, 6, 7, 9, 10)
• Jamie West-Oram – guitar (1, 9)
• Chester Kamen – guitar (6, 10)
• Roy Dodds – drums (4, 5, 11), percussion (4, 5, 11), congas (6)
• Steve Nieve – keyboards (1, 2, 7, 9)
• Kate St. John – oboe (2), Cor Anglais (5)
• Kim Burton – keyboards (4)
• Simon Edwards – bass (4)
• Roger Beaujolais – vibraphone (5)
• Andy Kowalski – additional programming (10)
• Ken Rice – violin (3)
• Fiachra Trench – string arrangements (1, 2, 4–11)
• Gavyn Wright – string leader (1, 2, 4–11)

Technical

• Victor Van Vugt – producer, engineer (1, 2, 4–10)
• Kirsty MacColl – producer (1, 2, 4–11)
• Mark E. Nevin – producer (1, 2, 4–11)
• Steve Lillywhite – producer (3), mixing
• Andy Kowalski – mixing assistant
• Alan Douglas – engineer (11)

CD two

• Steve Lillywhite – producer (1, 9–12), remixing (11)
• Victor Van Vugt – producer (2, 7)
• Kirsty MacColl – producer (2, 7)
• Mark E. Nevin – producer (2, 7)
• Peter Kaye – producer, mixing (5, 6)
• Stuart Crichton – additional production, remixing (1, 10)
• Gregg Jackman – additional production, remixing (9)
• Apollo 440 – remixing (12)

Notes

Released: 5 October 1993 

Recorded: 1993 Studio Townhouse 2 / Townhouse 3 / Ealing Studios / Master Rock (London)

Genre: pop rock, folk rock 

Length: Disc 1 47:40 / Disc 2 51:19

Producer(s): Victor Van Vugt, Kirsty MacColl, Mark E. Nevin, Steve Lillywhite

Label - ZTT (Europe) I.R.S. (US)