Cruel Inventions

Cruel Inventions

Studio album by

Sam Phillips

Released

May 28, 1991

Studio

Eagle Audio, Fort Worth, Texas
Ocean Way, Los Angeles, California
Sunset Sound Factory, Hollywood, California
Reggie Fisher's, Los Angeles, California

Genre

Alternative rock

Length

36:19

Sam Phillips chronology

The Indescribable Wow
(1988)

Cruel Inventions
(1991)

Martinis & Bikinis
(1994)

Cruel Inventions is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Sam Phillips.

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Transcription

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
Chicago Tribune	^[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	^[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[4]
Entertainment Weekly	A^[5]

Cruel Inventions received mostly favorable reviews from critics. At Entertainment Weekly, David Browne gave the album an A, writing that it "...is fraught with both beauty and tension, making it one of the year's most beguiling records."^[5] Browne named it his sixth favorite album of 1991.^[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sam Phillips

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Lying"	3:52
2.	"Go Down"	3:38
3.	"Cruel Inventions"	3:00
4.	"Standing Still"	3:10
5.	"Tripping Over Gravity"	5:21
6.	"Now I Can't Find the Door"	3:36
7.	"Private Storm"	4:10
8.	"Raised on Promises"	3:11
9.	"Hole in Time"	3:19
10.	"Where the Colors Don't Go"	3:02

Personnel

Sam Phillips – vocals, Chamberlin, guitars
T Bone Burnett – Chamberlin, guitars
Van Dyke Parks – Chamberlin, string arrangements
Jim Goodwin – acoustic piano
Elvis Costello – guitars
Marc Ribot – guitars
Jerry Scheff – bass
Alex Acuña – drums, percussion
Michael Blair – drums, percussion
Mickey Curry – drums, percussion
Ralph Forbes – drums, percussion
David Kemper – drums, percussion
Scott Musick – drums, percussion
Sandy Bull – oud
The Sid Page Strings – string quartet
- Larry Corbett – cello
- John Acevedo – viola
- Sid Page – violin
- Joel Derouin – violin

Production

T Bone Burnett – producer
Stacy Baird – recording
Rik Pekkonen – recording
Joe Schiff – recording
Tchad Blake – mixing
Kevin Killen – mixing
Max Garcia – assistant engineer
Mark Guilbeault – assistant engineer
Julie Last – assistant engineer
Tom Nellen – assistant engineer
Chris Niswander – assistant engineer
Eric Rudd – assistant engineer
Brian Soucy – assistant engineer
Jeff Ward – assistant engineer
Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk (New York City, New York)
Melanie Nissen – art direction
Inge Schapp – design
Kathleen Philpott – design
Anton Corbijn – photography
Borman Entertainment – management

References

^ McCartney, Kelly. "Review: Cruel Inventions". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
^ Kot, Greg (27 June 1991). "Sam Phillips Cruel Inventions (Virgin)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
^ Christgau, Robert (2000-10-15). "Sam Phillips: Cruel Inventions". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 9780312245603.
^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The encyclopedia of popular music: Indexes. Oxford University Press. p. 522. ISBN 9780195313734.
^ ^a ^b Browne, David (31 May 1991). "Cruel Inventions (1991)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
^ "1991's best (and worst) music". Entertainment Weekly. 1991-12-27.