{{Infobox album | name = 68 Million Shades... | type = studio | artist = Spring Heel Jack | cover = 68 Million Shades...jpg | alt = | released = 1996 | recorded = | venue = | studio = | genre = Jungle, drum and bass | length = | label = Trade2/Island | producer = John Coxon, Ashley Wales | prev_title = There are Strings | prev_year = 1995 | next_title = Versions | next_year = 1996 }} '''''68 Million Shades...''''' is the second album by the English musical duo Spring Heel Jack, released in 1996.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Peter |title=Drum 'n' Bass: The Rough Guide |date=1999 |publisher=Rough Guides |page=206}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Stubbs |first1=David |title=Well heeled |magazine=Melody Maker |date=Jun 22, 1996 |volume=73 |issue=25 |page=50}}</ref> It was released in the United States in February 1997.<ref name="BB">{{cite magazine |last1=Flick |first1=Larry |title=We're excited to report that Spring Heel Jack's... |magazine=Billboard |date=Nov 2, 1996 |volume=108 |issue=44 |page=30}}</ref> The duo supported the album with a North American tour that included shows opening for Orbital.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Gallo |first1=Phil |title=Orbital; Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Variety |department=Music |date=Dec 5, 1996}}</ref> "Midwest" was released as a single.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Savage |first1=Jon |title=Top ten—Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Artforum International |date=Dec 1996 |volume=35 |issue=4 |page=54}}</ref>
==Production== The album was produced by the duo, John Coxon and Ashley Wales.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Verna |first1=Paul |title=68 Million Shades... |magazine=Billboard |date=Feb 8, 1997 |volume=109 |issue=6 |page=62}}</ref> They recorded from Monday to Friday, mostly from 11 in the morning until 6 in the evening.<ref name="PS">{{cite magazine |last1=Gross |first1=Jason |title=Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Perfect Sound Forever |date=January 2001 |url=https://www.furious.com/perfect/springheeljack2.html}}</ref> The duo felt that they complemented each other in the studio, with Wales the more easygoing of the two.<ref name=PS/> They strove to create an album interesting enough to be enjoyed at home, divorced from nightlife and stimulants; they found that they kept adding musical elements to any attempt at a "regular" dance track.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Helms |first1=Colin |title=Spring Heel Jack: A Little Fantasy World of Sound |magazine=CMJ New Music Monthly |date=June 1997 |issue=46 |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kot |first1=Greg |title=British Logic: Spring Heel Jack Organizes All Sorts of Electronic Data |work=Chicago Tribune |date=28 Mar 1997 |department=Friday |pages=7, 15}}</ref> Coxon and Wales considered Ennio Morricone and Brian Eno to be among their primary influences.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Joe |title=68 Million Shades Spring Heel Jack |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=13 Feb 1997 |department=Get Out |page=8}}</ref> The duo produced a disc of remixes of the album, ''Versions''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Porter |first1=Christopher |title=Spring Heel Jack |work=Washington City Paper |date=November 15, 1996 |department=Arts}}</ref>
==Critical reception== {{music ratings |rev1 = AllMusic |rev1score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name="AM">{{cite web |title=68 Million Shades... Review by John Bush |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/68-million-shades-mw0000616595 |website=AllMusic |access-date=16 April 2024}}</ref> |rev2 = ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' |rev2score = {{rating|3|4}}<ref name="AJ">{{cite news |last1=Dollar |first1=Steve |title=Techno |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=23 Jan 1997 |page=G4}}</ref> |rev3 = Robert Christgau |rev3score = A<ref name="RC">{{cite web |title=Spring Heel Jack |url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Spring+Heel+Jack |website=Robert Christgau |access-date=16 April 2024}}</ref> |rev4 = ''Los Angeles Times'' |rev4score = {{rating|2.5|4}}<ref name="LA">{{cite news |last1=Romero |first1=D. James |title=Record Rack |work=Los Angeles Times |date=16 Feb 1997 |department=Calendar |page=68}}</ref> }} ''The Guardian'' noted that "Spring Heel Jack are routinely described in the music press as studio geniuses, but this sleekly produced masterwork suggests that a state-of-the-art studio has booted out the mere humans and set its own controls for the heart of the sun."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gittins |first1=Ian |title=Music: This week's dance cd releases |work=The Guardian |date=28 June 1996 |page=T24}}</ref> Robert Christgau called the album "prog jungle," writing that Wales and Coxon "recontextualize drum 'n' bass's redolent lingo—its triple-time superdrum pitta-pat, its impossible deep tremblors that modulate whole power plants in repose—by subsuming densely frenetic techno cum dancehall in a witting synthesis of electronic composition and another of Wales's passions, ''On the Corner''-era Miles Davis."<ref name=RC/> ''The New York Times'' said that the duo "merges strings and horns that sound as if they come from movie soundtracks with a beat that can fluidly change from a rapid-fire drum-machine roll to a conga rhythm."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Strauss |first1=Neil |title=New Sound Takes Root and Grows |work=The New York Times |date=30 July 1996 |page=C11}}</ref>
''Entertainment Weekly'' concluded that "the record has moments of airy, disquieting tranquility... But it could double as Muzak for a department store’s Gen-X section."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Browne |first1=David |title=Spring Heel Jack |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |department=Music |date=January 24, 1997}}</ref> ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' determined that Spring Heel Jack "is equally an inheritor of punk's do-it-yourself aesthetic and 1950s 'exotica' auteur Les Baxter's distinctly mondo notions about mood music."<ref name=AJ/> ''Rolling Stone'' stated: "Surrounding their break beats with a reverberating drone, Spring Heel sample sweeping strings, elastic saxophone, sitar, car horns, steel guitar, piano and trumpet, as well as cryptic, treated sounds, into a reverberating clamor that is equally tuneful and enigmatic."<ref name="RS">{{cite magazine |last1=Micallef |first1=Ken |title=68 Million Shades... |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=Feb 6, 1997 |issue=753 |page=48}}</ref> ''Spin'' included ''68 Million Shades...'' on its list of "The 10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear in '96".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Hermes |first1=Will |title=The 10 Best Albums You Didn't Hear in '96 |magazine=Spin |date=Jan 1997 |volume=12 |issue=10 |page=61}}</ref>
AllMusic wrote that the album "continues the duo's dense, dub-inspired take on jungle."<ref name=AM/>
==Track listing== {{Track listing | all_writing = | title1 = Take 1 | length1 = | title2 = Midwest | length2 = | title3 = 60 Seconds | length3 = | title4 = Plan | length4 = | title5 = Plates | length5 = | title6 = Bar | length6 = | title7 = Eesti | length7 = | title8 = Roger Tessier | length8 = | title9 = Island | length9 = | title10 = Suspensions | length10 = | title11 = Take 2 | length11 = | title12 = Take 3 | length12 = }}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} Category:Spring Heel Jack albums Category:1996 albums Category:Island Records albums