Partyball

Partyball is the third album by Stan Ridgway, released in 1991.^[1]

Critical reception

Trouser Press wrote that the album "serves up odes to trigger-happy cops, hopeless love, Harry Truman and the atom bomb, otherworldly chain gangs and plague-ridden dystopias, interrupted by odd instrumental interludes that continue Ridgway’s fascination with soundtrack music for invisible movies."^[2] The Los Angeles Times called the songs "mainly about the fearsome distortions that come from dominance, power and an unwillingness to acknowledge weakness and vulnerability as our common human lot."^[3]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Stan Ridgway

1. "Watch Your Step/Jack Talked (Like a Man on Fire)" - 4:19
2. "I Wanna Be a Boss" - 4:52
3. "Mouthful of Sand/The Roadblock" - 5:31
4. "Snaketrain" - 3:53
5. "Right Through You" - 3:45
6. "The Gumbo Man" - 3:34
7. "Harry Truman" - 3:51
8. "Venus Is Hell/Overlords" - 5:39
9. "O.K?/Uba's House of Fashions" - 4:36
10. "Bad News at the Dynamite Ranch/Beyond Tomorrow" - 7:19

Personnel

Adapted from the Partyball liner notes.^[4]

• Stan Ridgway – vocals, backing vocals (1, 9, 10), keyboards (2–6, 8), acoustic guitar (2, 6, 7), guitars (3–5, 8), harmonica (3)
• Bernard Sauser-Hall – keyboards (1, 7, 9, 10), organ (6)
• Pietra Wexstun – keyboards (1, 7, 9, 10), backing vocals (1, 2, 5, 9, 10)
• Jeff Boynton – acoustic piano (5)
• Mark Schulz – guitars (1, 9, 10), electric guitar (2, 7)
• Don Teschner – lap steel guitar (4)
• Joe Ramirez – bass (1, 6, 7, 9), backing vocals (1, 9)
• David Sutton – bass (2), fretless bass (5)
• Joseph Berardi – drums (1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10), timpani (1), percussion (6, 8, 10)
• Jim Hill – additional drum programming, anvil (8)
• Elmo Smith – saxophone (3, 8)
• Beth Anderson – backing vocals (2)
• John Batdorf – backing vocals (2)
• Larry Grennan – backing vocals (2, 10)
• Evon Williams – backing vocals (2)

Production

• Stan Ridgway – producer
• Jim Hill – engineer, recording, mixing (1.1, 2–9.2, 10.1)
• Joe Chiccharelli – mixing (1.2, 9.2, 10.2)
• Andrew Ballard – second engineer
• Bill Cooper – second engineer
• Mike Green – second engineer
• Alan Yoshida – mastering at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, California)
• Beth Escott – art direction, design
• Kevin Reagan – Geffen art direction
• Rocky Schenck – photography

Chart positions

Singles

References

1. ^ "Stan Ridgway | Biography & History". AllMusic
2. ^ "Stan Ridgway". Trouser Press. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
3. ^ "POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Thought-Provoking Set From Stan Ridgway". Los Angeles Times. October 28, 1991.
4. ^ Partyball (booklet). Los Angeles, California: Geffen Records. 1991.
5. ^ "Stan Ridgway Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-12-03.^{[dead link]}