Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Quiet Life
2. Fall In Love With Me
3. Despair
4. In Vogue
5. Halloween
6. All Tomorrow's Parties
7. Alien
8. The Other Side Of Life
9. All Tomorrow's Parties (12-inch version)
10. All Tomorrow's Parties (7-inch version)
11. Foreign Place
12. Quiet Life (7-inch version)

Disc 2:

1. Quiet Life (Bonus Video on CD-ROM)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9318 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
Over their relatively brief recorded career--five studio albums--Japan made a huge about-face. From a glam-rock band with arty pretenses they became the epitome of the "New Romantics", wearing their classical and world-beat influences on their ruffled sleeves. QUIET LIFE, the third of their five albums, is the first fully removed from traditional rock.
The title track opens the album with hectic drums and percolating synthesizers offsetting the tremendously controlled guitar and rubbery bass. This song, and indeed album, also introduce the style of vocals that David Sylvian would use for the rest of the band's career--a cross between David Bowie and Bryan Ferry that is much more pleasant to listen to than descriptions would indicate. "Despair", with its piano, saxophone, and swelling synthesizer, is clearly modeled after thesecond half of Bowie's LOW, as well as being the second of Sylvian's compositions paying overt homage to composer Erik Satie. A cover of the Velvet Underground classic "All Tomorrow's Parties" is completely dominated by Mick Karn's bass playing, though the rest of the band does their best to keep up. QUIET LIFE is an essential road sign in the career of a fascinating band.

Customer Reviews

Class
Describing music is difficult, but if you like early Eno (e.g. "Music For Films", "Another Green World") Roxy Music's "For your Pleasure" or David Bowie's "Heroes" there is a good chance you'll love this album. It is beautifully played and put together; the production is top grade. The music is haunting and warm. These guys were some of the top musicicans of the time, yet most dismissed them as a glam pop rock outfit that arrived too late. They weren't at all. This album and its predecessor "Obscure Alternatives" go together well. They each have a different feel, "Quite Life" is slicker and less cold than "Obscure Alternatives", but there is a musical connection between the two that lets you see their progression as musicians. Highly recommended.

Classic Japan
I must say this is there tour de force as far as I am concerned , less bombastic than Adolescent Sex, more smooth than Obscure Alternatives and just about better than Gentlemen Take Poloroids and Tin Drum.
Every Track is a winner as other above albums have highs and several lows.
Sylvians voice is on top form here between the screech and the drone,Its a a shame they couldn`t add on I Second That Emotion instead of 3 versions of the sublime All Tomorrows Parties and 2 versions of Quiet Life.
Cest La vie.

Journey to the Otherworld...
David Sylvian's elfin image, moving through the mist, sets the sensuous mood for Quiet Life.
These songs shimmer and smoulder from the stereo. The title track and "Life In Tokyo" with thoughtful lyrics, and hypnotic keyboards, touch popular appeal. This leaves the remainder in the weirdly beautiful 'alternative' category. "Alien" and the epic "Other Side Of Life" drift into other realms. "All Tommorow's Parties" oozes like a transmission from a strange, sun-scorched planet. "In vogue", "Despair" and "Fall In Love With Me" feature tortured bass and saxaphone , and whirling, weaving synths.
Finally, "A Foreign Place" sets the precedent for later albums with an experimental, oriental theme.
As a whole we are transported back to the early eighties, blending new-wave and new-romantic, in a band who were hidden behind the hot parade of the times.