Sense

Running Time: 42.23
Release date: 6th April 1992.
Date first charted: 18th April 1992
Highest UK chart position: No. 54
Weeks on chart: 2
Label: Virgin
Catalogue number: CDV 2690
Formats: CD, LP, Cassette

Personnel credits:
All instruments played by Ian Broudie & Simon Rogers with:
– Mark L. Feltham: Harmonica
– Alan Dunn: Accordian
– Clive Layton: Hammond Organ
– Roddy Lorimer: Trumpet
– Backing vocals: Terry Hall, Ian McNabb & Juliet Roberts

Produced by Ian Broudie and Simon Rogers.
Mixed at Rockfield Studios, Wales.
Engineered by Cenzo Townshend, with Phil Ault & Simon Dawson.
Recorded in Rob’s Front Room, Liverpool.

Running Order and writing credits:
1. Sense (Ian Broudie / Terry Hall)
2. The Life of Riley (Ian Broudie)
3. Blowing Bubbles (Ian Broudie)
4. A Cool Place (Ian Broudie)
5. Where Flowers Fade (Ian Broudie / Terry Hall)
6. A Small Slice of Heaven (Ian Broudie / Terry Hall)
7. Tingle Tangle (Ian Broudie)
8. Happy (Ian Broudie / Ian McNabb)
9. Marooned (Ian Broudie)
10. Thinking Up Looking Down (Ian Broudie)

My notes:
After the drum machines and programming of Cloudcuckooland, we have a bit of a departure in the recording process, which was done in Ian’s brother’s front room. Ian’s influence of the likes of De La Soul means a lot of the rhythm tracks are made up of samples and loops, though listening to the finished product, it’s done so well you’d never necessarily know. A more mature and fuller sound than the debut, it also marked the start of Ian’s long lived collaboration with unofficial Lightning Seed Terry Hall. A Small Slice of Heaven, Where Flowers Fade, and of course the title track Sense are all Broudie / Hall co-writes, and something magical happens when you see those two names after a song. Broudie also collaborated with Icicle Work Ian McNabb on the track Happy.

Although it only peaked at 54 in the charts, it spawned one of the Lightning Seeds’ most famous songs – The Life of Riley. Not only a top 30 single, but the instrumental version became the best Goal Of The Month competition backing song ever used. It’s a fantastic underrated gem of an album.

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