The Chinese Album is the second album from the expatriate British alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band Spacehog

Spacehog

Spacehog is an English rock band formed in 1994. Their music is heavily influenced by David Bowie, Queen, and T.Rex.-Members:* Royston Langdon a.k.a. "Ray Sprinkles" – bass and vocals...

. It was released on Sire Records

Sire Records

Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...

 on March 10, 1998.

The Chinese Album was considered for a soundtrack and basis of a film called "Mungo City" (later called "The Chinese Movie"). It was to be about a band that moves to Hong Kong for success after getting rejected by a New York record company. Unsatisfied with the final script, Spacehog dismissed any plans for shooting.

Spacehog wrote and recorded 20 songs for The Chinese Album. Among these are the b-sides "Final Frontier", "Isle of Manhattan", and "Cryogenic Lover" which were released as European singles.

Track listing

All songs by Royston Langdon except when noted.

1. "One Of These Days" (David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Brian Eno, Royston Langdon) - 3:35
2. "Goodbye Violet Race" - 4:00
3. "Lucy's Shoe" - 4:13
4. "Mungo City" - 4:34
5. "Skylark" (Antony Langdon) -1:57
6. "Sand In Your Eyes" - 3:49
7. "Captain Freeman" (Royston Langdon, Antony Langdon) - 2:27
8. "2nd Avenue" - 2:58
9. "Almond Kisses" (featuring Michael Stipe
   Michael Stipe
   John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
   
   ) (Royston Langdon, Antony Langdon) - 2:44
10. "Carry On" - 3:33
11. "Anonymous" - 3:37
12. "Beautiful Girl" - 4:09

Personnel

• Royston Langdon - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
   and vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• Antony Langdon - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
   and vocals
• Jonny Cragg - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Richard Steel - lead guitar
  Lead guitar
  Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
  
  

The beginning of "Mungo City" references the "Ministry of Plenty" from Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...