Marshall's House (February 2004)

Details:
6.5 / 10

This album was inspired by an Edward Hopper calendar given to John Squire as a Christmas gift in 2002.

1. Summertime
2. Hotel Room
3. Marshall's House
4. Lighthouse & Buildings, Portland Head, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
5. Cape Cod Morning
6. People In The Sun
7. Tables For Ladies
8. Automat
9. Yawl Riding A Swell
10. Room In Brooklyn
11. Gas

Format:
Released December 2003:
Marshall's House (North Country Records, Promo CD)
Summertime / Room In Brooklyn / Automat / Lighthouse And Buildings (North Country Records, 4 Track Sampler CD)

Released 28th January 2004:
Marshall's House (North Country Records, TFCK-87345, Japanese CD)

Released 9th February 2004:
Marshall's House (North Country Records, NCCD003, CD)
Marshall's House (North Country Records, NCLP003, LP)

UK chart details: Did not chart in Top 40.

Artwork details:
The Marshall's House artwork is from 'Swimming Through The Holes In Dead American Painters' (2003), oil on canvas, 30" x 72"

 

 

 

Marshall's House CD front cover (top left), the design of which takes inspiration from Blue Note Records, an American label releasing work by Jazz artists since the 1950s. Recorded in a spurt of 12 days at Bryn Derwen in Wales, the album was originally going to be entitled 'Swimming Through The Holes In Dead American Painters' (a lyric from Lighthouse & Buildings, Portland Head, Cape Elizabeth, Maine and the title of the cover artwork), but it was decided that this was too much of a mouthful. 'Swimming Through The Holes In Dead American Painters' is influenced both by Gary Hume (1962 - ) (see, for example, his work, 'Purple Pauline') and the 'Blue Nude' series by Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954). Top right is 'Blue Nude II' (1952) by Matisse. For his artwork circa the Marshall's House LP, Squire draws inspiration from contemporary artists such as Fiona Rae (1963 - ) and Julian Opie (1958 - ). 'Swimming Through the Holes in Dead American Painters', 'Marshall's House' and 'Marshall's House (Study)' (all from 2003), 'SU4', 'SU5', and 'SU6c' (all from 2004; the initials SU stand for Squire's girlfriend, Sophie Upton), like the works of Hume and Opie, are vast outlined, figurative canvases. Compare Squire's 'SU5' (2004) (middle, left) and Hume's 'Water Painting', from 1999 (middle, right). On the bottom row, compare Squire's 'Mother' (2005) (bottom left) and Rae's 'Friction Dance' (1997) (bottom right).

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