I THOUGHT YOU WERE A SPY (2006) by World Party featuring Karl Wallinger

For the most part, World Party is ex Waterboys' Karl Wallinger, who invariably would record most of the tracks for his albums by himself and tour with additional musicians. He also plays guitar left handed without changing the strings around, which very few people do. Wallinger is a great singer and songwriter, having written songs such as Ship of Fools and She's The One. This is my favourite song off the 2006 US release of 'Dumbing Up'. It was not on the original 2000 UK release.

Recorded at Wallinger's home in 1986, his debut album Private Revolution yielded the hit "Ship Of Fools", reaching no. 4 in Australia, no. 21 in New Zealand, and no. 27 in the US, in the process becoming the act's only major international hit. Goodbye Jumbo, World Party's second album, contained the minor UK hit singles "Way Down Now" and "Put the Message in the Box". Wallinger collaborated with fellow songwriter Guy Chambers on some of the tracks. Goodbye Jumbo was voted "album of the year" by Q magazine and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "best alternative music performance" in the US.

After the 1991 EP Thank You World, Wallinger recruited guitarist David Catlin-Birch and ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock as fully-fledged members for 1993's hit album Bang. Their fourth album, Egyptology (1997), written following the death of Wallinger's mother, was commercially disastrous, although "She's the One" won an Ivor Novello Award and was subsequently recorded by Robbie Williams. Wallinger took a three-year break from World Party, before the release of Dumbing Up in 2000. However, in February 2001 he was struck down by an aneurysm that left him unable to speak.

After a long, five-year rehabilitation, in 2006 Wallinger re-emerged onto the scene. With his back catalogue reclaimed from EMI, a distribution deal was struck (via his own Seaview label) with Universal, and he played his first live show in a decade at the Austin, Texas-based South by Southwest festival. He played additional US dates in 2006. Big Blue Ball, a joint project with Peter Gabriel .

In September 2007, World Party supported Steely Dan in their first tour of Australia and I was lucky enough to see them (what a double act!). In 2012 World Party released a new five CD collection of new songs, live recordings and cover versions. Titled "Arkeology". Much of the above is summarised from Wikipedia.

There is no video for this album track, so I have made my own slideshow video.

Comments are invited.