Paper Tigers is the fourth studio album by Swedish band Caesars, released on 26 April 2005. The album was released on Virgin in the United Kingdom, Astralwerks in the United States and Toshiba-EMI in Japan.[1] The album contains the re-release of the song "Jerk It Out".
| Paper Tigers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 26 April 2005 | |||
| Recorded | 2001–2004 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 47:33 | |||
| Label | Toshiba-EMI (Japan) VJCP 68748 Virgin CDVIR219 (UK) Astralwerks ASW 60828 (US) | |||
| Producer | Joakim Åhlund, Michael H. Brauer | |||
| Caesars chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Paper Tigers | ||||
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Recording
editRecording for Paper Tigers first began in the winter of 2003 at Silence Studio. The sessions then moved to Joakim Åhlund's Decibel Studio, in Stockholm. The album was mixed in New York by Michael Brauer.[2]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by Joakim Åhlund unless otherwise noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Spirit" | Joakim Åhlund, Nino Keller | 4:51 |
| 2. | "It's Not the Fall That Hurts" | 2:49 | |
| 3. | "Out There" | César Vidal | 3:03 |
| 4. | "Jerk It Out" | 3:17 | |
| 5. | "May the Rain" | 3:08 | |
| 6. | "My Heart Is Breaking Down" | Max Group | 2:35 |
| 7. | "Paper Tigers" | 3:58 | |
| 8. | "Your Time Is Near" | 4:49 | |
| 9. | "Throwaway" | Joakim Åhlund, César Vidal | 2:49 |
| 10. | "Winter Song" | 3:05 | |
| 11. | "We Got to Leave" | 3:23 | |
| 12. | "Soul Chaser" | 4:13 | |
| 13. | "Good and Gone" | 3:02 | |
| 14. | "(I'm Gonna) Kick You Out (bonus track on certain editions)" | 2:50 |
Personnel
editThe following people contributed to Paper Tigers:[3]
Caesars
edit- César Vidal – lead vocals, guitar
- Joakim Åhlund – audio Production, guitar, mixing, producer
- Nino Keller – Drums, vocals
- David Lindquist – bass guitar
Additional personnel
edit- Hector Araya – strings
- Chris Athens – mastering
- Michael Brauer – mixing
- Lasse Mårtén – engineer
- Kristoffer Nergårdh – piano
- Pontus Olsson – engineer
- Ismail Samie – A&R
- Fredrik Wennerlund – photography
- Björn Yttling – Farfisa organ, phillycorda
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    link |
| Entertainment Weekly | (A) link |
| The Guardian | link |
| Pitchfork Media | (4.9/10) link |
| PopMatters | (5/10) link |
| Rolling Stone | Archived 2 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine |
Paper Tigers has received mixed to positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a 63 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[4]
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A grade, writing that the album was "one meaty, vigorous track after another of modern-Mersey-beat pop..." Browne concluded his review with: "All retro rock should sound this good."[5] In another positive review, The Guardian's Dave Simpson wrote that Paper Tigers "is a treasure waiting to be found by the rest of us," and called the album "simultaneously ecstatic and melancholy."[6]
On the other hand, Allmusic's Heather Phares criticized the album, writing that beyond "Jerk It Out", "It's Not the Fall That Hurts" and "Soulchaser", there were not many other memorable songs on the album.[7] Stephen Haag of Popmatters also criticized the album's lack of memorable tracks, writing "If folks are purchasing Paper Tigers expecting a dozen more tunes like 'Jerk It Out'... they'll soon find that Caesars is guilty of bait-and-switch."[8] In another mixed review, Marc Hogan of Pitchfork Media described the album as "...one or two decent singles surrounded by a bunch of mediocre-or-worse filler."[9]
Singles
edit- "We Got To Leave" - released 16 February 2005.[10]
- "Jerk It Out" - released 18 April 2005 on Virgin Records in the UK
- This single has been featured on iPod shuffle advertisements, the British television series "Teachers" and on the video games "FIFA Football 2004", SSX 3, and as downloadable content for Rock Band 3.
- CD DINSD274: "Jerk It Out" / "The Longer We Stay Together"
- "7" DINS274: "Jerk It Out" / "Up All Night"
Charts
editAlbum
edit| Chart (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers | 44[11] |
Singles
edit| Year | Song | Peak positions | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [12] |
US Alt [11] |
US Adult Top 40 [11] |
European Hot 100 [11] | |||||||||
| 2005 | "We Got to Leave" | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2005 | "Jerk It Out" | 8 | 40 | 38 | 20 | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ Paper Tigers - Caesars. Allmusic. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
- ^ "CAESARS Press". Archived from the original on 30 November 2005. Retrieved 2 September 2016.. caesarsweb.com. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ Paper Tigers - Credits. Allmusic. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Critic Reviews for Paper Tiger. Metacritic. Retrieved 21 June 2011
- ^ Browne, David. Paper Tigers Review. Entertainment Weekly. 18 April 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Simpson, Dave. The Caesars, Paper Tigers. The Guardian. 9 December 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Phares, Heather. Paper Tigers - Caesars. Allmusic. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Haag, Stephen. Caesars: Paper Tigers. Popmatters. 2 May 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ Hogan, Marc. Album Reviews: Caesars: Paper Tigers. Pitchfork Media. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 23 June 2011
- ^ We Got to Leave - Single Archived 18 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine. iTunes. Retrieved 21 June 2011
- ^ a b c d "Paper Tigers - Caesars". Billboard.com. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
- ^ CAESARS. The Official Chart Company. Retrieved 21 June 2011
External links
edit- Official Myspace page
- Label website
- Paper Tigers press release at archive.today (archived 30 November 2005)