The Madding Crowd


The Madding Crowd is the debut studio album by the American rock band Nine Days, released on May 16, 2000 on Epic Records. It spawned the major hit "Absolutely " and other single "If I Am". The Madding Crowd peaked at #67 on the Billboard Top 200. The album's title is a reference to Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel Far from the Madding Crowd.

Track listing

  1. "So Far Away" – 3:56
  2. "Absolutely " – 3:09
  3. "If I Am" – 4:18
  4. "End Up Alone" – 3:57
  5. "Sometimes" – 5:14
  6. "Bob Dylan" – 4:35
  7. "257 Weeks" – 4:04
  8. "Bitter" – 6:21
  9. "Back to Me" – 4:00
  10. "Crazy" – 4:14
  11. "Revolve" – 3:54
  12. "Wanna Be" – 6:03

    Personnel

In January 2013, upon the relaunch of the band's official website, several old live recordings and demos were made available to the band's fans for the first time. Included among these were the original demos for The Madding Crowd.
These demos were recorded in 1998 and 1999 between the band's independently released album Three and their first mainstream hit of "Absolutely."
  1. Another Day
  2. Absolutely
  3. If I Am
  4. Too Much Love
  5. Esteem
  6. Nobody
  7. Revolve
  8. Bring It Back

  1. Day By Daybreak
  2. Heart Defect
  3. Side To Side
  4. Wanna Be
  5. That's How You Are
Of the songs included in the demo album, five were later recorded and included on the actual release of the album in, more or less, an unaltered, though more produced, form. One more track, "Side To Side" carries the same melody and many of the same lyrics as "257 Weeks" but is not completely the same song.
While the tracks that remained nearly unaltered, the increased production is very evident on the official release of the album, especially on the tracks "Absolutely" and "Wanna Be." "Wanna Be" particularly is a faster track on the demo version, whereas the produced version is slower and more haunting.

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