Although not considered one of Peter Hammill's best by longtime fans, 1988's In a Foreign Town does contain some worthwhile material.
Produced by Hammill himself, the album is far more upbeat than most of his past work, and sounds like mid-'80s Genesis at times.
But it may be one of Hammill's most musically varied albums; just give a listen to the new wave sound of "Invisible Ink" (one of the album's catchiest and strongest tracks), the Talking Heads-like "Sci-Finance (Revisited)," and the Adrian Belew/King Crimson sound of "Auto." But the anemic '80s production of the material tends to take away from the compositions; it's the complete opposite of earlier Hammill releases, where he kept things more straight-ahead.
The song "Under Cover Names" contains completely un-Hammill-like, cheesy Miami Vice keyboard sounds.
The only track where the Peter Hammill-of-old resurfaces is on the stark piano/voice composition "The Play's the Thing." If the one-dimensional production was replaced with more interesting sounds, In a Foreign Town would have turned out better, since there was still plenty of strong Hammill songwriting present.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HemlockPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 06:30 | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Invisible InkPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:19 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Sci-Finance [Revisited]Peter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:22 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | This BookPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 05:14 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Time to BurnPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 03:44 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | AutoPeter Hammill, Heinz Rudolf Kunze | Peter Hammill | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Vote Brand XPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Sun City NightlifePeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:34 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | The Play's The ThingPeter Hammill | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:54 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Under Covers Names | Peter Hammill | Play | 04:19 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 46 mins | 105 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Hammill | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 2 | Heinz Rudolf Kunze | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |