Voices of Babylon is an album by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 band The Outfield

The Outfield

The Outfield are an arena rock-influenced English pop rock/power pop power trio based in London, England. The Outfield are unusual for a British band in that they enjoyed commercial success in the U.S., but never reached the album or singles charts in their homeland...

, released during the spring of 1989

1989 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...

 and which spawned an eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous single. It was the group's final album to feature drummer Alan Jackman, and it was also their final album on the Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 label. Following the album's release, and with the commercial success of the band slipping, the band parted ways with drummer Alan Jackman and soon hired Paul Reed as a replacement for the album's tour.

This album features a unique script similar to what is known as the Pigpen cipher

Pigpen cipher

The pigpen cipher is a geometric simple substitution cipher which exchanges letters for symbols which are fragments of a grid...

. On the album cover, the script says "OUTFIELD", and the liner notes show the title of each album track in that same script.

Track listing

1. "Voices of Babylon"
2. "My Paradise"
3. "Part of Your Life"
4. "Shelter Me"
5. "The Night Ain't Over"
6. "No Point"
7. "Taken By Surprise"
8. "Reach Out"
9. "Makin' Up"
10. "Inside Your Skin"

All songs were written by John Frederick Spinks, with the exception of "Taken By Surprise", which was written by John Spinks and Tony Lewis.

Personnel

• Tony Lewis - 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...
  
  , bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• John Spinks - 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...
  
  , vocals, keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , songwriter
  Songwriter
  A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
  
  
• Alan Jackman - 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 ....
  
  
• David Kahne
  David Kahne
  David Kahne is an American record producer. Kahne started his musical career as a working musician and then became notable for his role as in-house producer and engineer at 415 Records, the first American new wave music label, and for his subsequent roles as Vice President of A&R at Columbia...
  
   - keyboards, producer
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  

Singles

The album's title track was a Top 40 hit single, peaking at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 and #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks

Mainstream Rock Tracks

Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...

 chart. The second-single was "My Paradise", which peaked at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, not achieving the success expected of it.