Clichés is the fourth solo album released by American pop rock musician Alex Chilton. It was recorded and released in 1993. Chilton recorded the album in New Orleans at Chez Flames, the recording studio of producer and recording engineer Keith Keller (who also wrote the song "Lies", featured on Chilton's subsequent album of rock-oriented covers and original songs, A Man Called Destruction).
In January 1992, Chilton was one of eight singer-songwriters (the others being Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Eric Andersen, David Olney, Pat Mears, Paul K, and Tom Pacheco) who participated in a short tour of the Netherlands where each artist performed solo. For this series of concerts, Chilton performed much of the music that would be on his next album. He explained how the album came about to journalist Keith Spera in 1995:
Release history The album was initially released on CD in Europe by the French label New Rose Records in 1993, and the following year in the United States by the recently revived Ardent Records, Chilton's primary label based in Memphis and the home of his former band Big Star in the 1970s. It was also licensed to Century Records in Japan in 1994.
Clichés was reissued in France in 2004 by Last Call Records, on a two-for-one CD with Chilton's 1999 covers collection (and final studio album) Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy.
Bar/None Records issued a limited edition LP of Clichés, with new cover art, for Record Store Day in April 2024.
Reception
Clichés has received generally favorable reviews since its initial release. In his AllMusic review, critic Mark Deming said of Chilton’s solo performances of pop standards: "[O]n this material his delivery is warm, easygoing, and straightforward, and he seems to genuinely enjoy himself in a way he hasn't on record since the first Big Star album." He also praises Chilton’s singing, "[d]espite the occasional rough moment in his vocals and guitar playing".
Track listing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (Bergman, Vocco, Conn) – 3:44 "Time After Time" (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn) – 2:36 "All of You" (Cole Porter) – 1:38 "Gavotte" (Johann Sebastian Bach) – 1:39 "Save Your Love for Me" (Buddy Johnson) – 2:49 "Let's Get Lost" (Frank Loesser, Jimmy McHugh) – 2:01 "Funny (But I Still Love You)" (Ray Charles) – 3:13 "Frame for the Blues" (Slide Hampton) – 3:34 "The Christmas Song" (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells) – 2:38 "There Will Never Be Another You" (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon) – 3:02 "Somewhere Along the Way" (Kurt Adams, Sammy Gallop) – 3:00 "What Was" (Ken Wannberg, Stephen Lehner) – 2:00
References