England Made Me (album)

For the novel by Graham Greene, see England Made Me (novel).

England Made Me is the debut studio album by English indie rock band Black Box Recorder, whose members include Luke Haines, Sarah Nixey and John Moore, released in July 1998 via Chrysalis Records.

England Made Me
Studio album by Black Box Recorder
Released	20 July 1998
Genre	Indie pop, indie rock, spoken word
Length	37:16
Label	Chrysalis
Producer	Black Box Recorder, Phil Vinall
Black Box Recorder chronology
England Made Me (1998) The Facts of Life (2000)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
Alternative Press	3/5^[2]
NME	7/10^[3]
Pitchfork	6.2/10^[4]
Q	^[5]
Rolling Stone	^[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[7]
Select	4/5^[8]
Spin	8/10^[9]
The Village Voice	A−^[10]

The chorus of the song "Child Psychology" featured a highly controversial line: "Life is unfair, kill yourself or get over it". This led to the song being banned on UK radio and MTV. However, the sardonic nature of the song also gained praise from critics, with one calling it 'refreshingly blunt'. The single was released in the US shortly after the Columbine massacre, leading to the line "kill yourself" being censored on the US release.

The cover features a photograph of wrestler Adrian Street with his miner father taken in 1973 by Dennis Hutchinson at Beynon's Colliery in Blaina, Wales.^[11]

Track listing

All songs written by Luke Haines and John Moore, except for where noted.

1. "Girl Singing in the Wreckage" – 2:42
2. "England Made Me" – 4:00
3. "New Baby Boom" – 2:10
4. "It's Only the End of the World" – 5:21
5. "Ideal Home" – 2:39
6. "Child Psychology" – 4:08
7. "I. C. One Female" – 2:19
8. "Uptown Top Ranking" (Althea & Donna, Errol Thompson) – 3:57
9. "Swinging" – 3:52
10. "Kidnapping an Heiress" – 2:46
11. "Hated Sunday" – 3:16

Bonus tracks

12. "Wonderful Life" – 2:16
13. "Seasons in the Sun" (Jacques Brel, Rod McKuen) – 2:40
14. "Factory Radio" – 2:13
15. "Lord Lucan Is Missing" (Doug Potter, Gary Turner) – 1:48

Personnel

Black Box Recorder

• Sarah Nixey - vocals
• John Moore - instruments
• Luke Haines - instruments

Technical

• Black Box Recorder (track 8), Martin Jenkins (tracks 2, 3, 10, 11), Pete Hofmann (tracks 5, 7, 9), Phil Vinall (track 1), Teo Miller (tracks 4, 6) - engineer
• Phil Vinall (track 1), Teo Miller (tracks 2-11) - mixing
• Dennis Hutchinson - cover photography

Charts

Chart (1998)	Peak position
UK Albums (OCC)^[12]	110

References

1. Swihart, Stanton. "England Made Me – Black Box Recorder". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
2. "Black Box Recorder: England Made Me". Alternative Press (134): 92–93. September 1999.
3. Empire, Kitty (18 July 1998). . NME. Archived from the original on 17 August 2000. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
4. Sandlin, Michael (6 July 1999). "Black Box Recorder: England Made Me". Pitchfork. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
5. "Black Box Recorder: England Made Me". Q (171): 142. December 2000.
6. Hunter, James (19 August 1999). . Rolling Stone. p. 115. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
7. Harris, Keith (2004). "The Auteurs". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 29–30. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
8. Wilkinson, Roy (August 1998). "Black Box Recorder: England Made Me". Select (98): 95.
9. Clover, Joshua (September 1999). "Black Box Recorder: England Made Me". Spin. 15 (9): 194. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
10. Christgau, Robert (7 March 2000). "Consumer Guide: Cleanup Time". The Village Voice. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
11. Haines, Luke (2011). Post Everything: Outsider Rock and Roll. London: William Heinemann. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-434-02009-6.
12. "Chart Log UK: Darren B – David Byrne". Zobbel.de. Retrieved 3 February 2019.