The first single from the album, "Suburban Knights", was released on 20 August 2007, reaching #7 in UK charts and a download only release on 13 August 2007. This was followed by "Can't Get Along " on 12 November 2007 charting at #45. It reached #1 in Peru, one week after being released and staying there for two weeks. On 10 March 2008, 'I Shall Overcome' became the third single to be released from Once Upon a Time in the West. It reached #4 in South America and hitting #35 in the UK singles chart The album's cover artwork has received some mixed publicity for being different. The band's frontman, Richard Archer, stated the band wanted "to break the rules". and it was labelled as "The white album of the digital culture" by Peter Saville.
History
The band's debut album, Stars of CCTV sold over 1 million copies worldwide and spawned the singles: "Cash Machine", "Hard to Beat" and "Living for the Weekend". Although the band were offered Abbey Road Studios, they decided they would again record in their "Cherry Lips" studio, which earned its name from the colour used to paint the walls. The band expanded the studios to have more space. The band already had ten songs that were thought suitable for the album, but Richard Archer decided that he wanted to spend at least a year concentrating on those ten, re-working the songs and just trying to improve them. In order to improve the songs, the band would play new songs live to see some reception towards what they had been working on and then seeing what they could add or take off. Through a video podcast, which was broadcast through YouTube, MySpace and iTunes, the band uploaded episodes of how things were going, offering a taste of what was to come and what recording was like among other things such as Ross giving a step to step guide on how to make tea.
"The label were breathing down our necks as soon as we started this album. When we were recording, the label wanted it yesterday. They didn't want to take any chances. We built our own studio for the sessions so everything took a little longer than expected. We were in there working, experimenting with our new setup and the label weren't hearing anything. They started freaking out and talking about pulling the plug and putting us in a new studio with a new producer. I had to tell them to get a f**king grip."
The first single from the album was "Suburban Knights", released on 20 August, which had its first play on 18 June 2007 at 19:20 on Radio 1. Once Upon a Time in the West was finally released on 3 September 2007. The band launched the album on the midnight of release at Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street, London with a performance of a selected number of songs followed by a CD signing. The following day the band performed at Maida Vale Studios to a small audience who earned their tickets through Radio 1. On 9 September, Once Upon a Time in the West went straight in at #1 in the Album Charts, giving the band their second consecutive #1 album. The name of the album was chosen as the band had been watching a lot of westerns on their tour bus, being big fans of Ennio Morricone they decided it was perfect as they go on stage to "Man With The Harmonica". Other titles, now deemed by Archer as "silly" were "Bat Out of Staines" and "Songs In The Key Of Staines". Tracks on the album include the 70s ska-inspired "We Need Love", and "Tonight". "The latter is a big piano-driven number – it had a few incarnations before it became what it is, but it's about the possibility of night time. History is made at night." said Archer. Meanwhile, the former harks back to The Specials and was inspired by Billy Bragg's novella "The Progressive Patriot". Other tracks include the R&B-influenced "Can't Get Along ", "Help Me Please" – a track written about the death of Archer's mother – plus, "I Shall Overcome" which echoes an early The Clash, along with the lead single "Suburban Knights". "Tonight" went to #6 in Q's Top 50 Essential Downloads, where they described the song as "Richard Archer's written his first power ballad, all piano, surging chorus and lyrics about "feeling alive". If Chris Martindropped his aitches, this is what he'd sound like."
Reception
Initial critical response to Once Upon a Time in the West has been generally favorable. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 70, based on 16 reviews. Review compendium site 'Metacritic' recorded seven reviews with scores of 80 or above, but nine reviews scored at 60 or below. Its overall rating was lower than their debut Stars of CCTV which is rated at 74. An example among the positive reviews was Q's, which gave the album four stars and quoted "goodbye Staines, hello big league".
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Archer.
"Suburban Knights" – 4:29
"I Shall Overcome" – 4:16
"Tonight" – 3:55
"Watch Me Fall Apart" – 2:51
"I Close My Eyes" – 2:26
"Television" – 3:40
"Help Me Please" – 3:12
"Can't Get Along " – 2:58
"We Need Love" – 4:02
"Little Angel" – 2:52
"The King" – 3:14
Bonus tracks
"You and Me" – 3:50
"Tonight" – 3:50
"Suburban Knights" – 3:34
"These Four Walls and I" – 4:12
"Suburban Knights" – 8:47
"Suburban Knights" – 3:59
Bonus
The audio CD also functioned as a CD-ROM, containing Hard-Fi microsite with two videos and some extras.
