Not Accepted Anywhere
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Not Accepted Anywhere
Studio album by The Automatic
Released	UK June 19, 2006 USA 22 June 2007
Recorded	Stir Studio Cardiff ("Rats" "That's What She Said" "Monster" "Keep Your Eyes Peeled"), Elevator Studio Liverpool ("Raoul", "Recover", "Team Drama"), The Chapel, South Thoresby ("Lost At Home" "Seriously... I Hate You Guys", "By My Side", "You Shout You Shout You Shout You Shout"), The Peace Rooms Hammersmith ("On The Campaign Trail")
Genre	Post-punk revival Alternative rock Dance-punk
Length	UK 40:26 USA 43:49 Japan 47:281
Label	B-Unique Records 2 Polydor Records3
Producer	Steve Harris Richard Jackson Ian Broudie4
Professional reviews
Allmusic link BBC BBC.uk link Drowned in Sound 5/10 link NME link This Is Fake DIY link Gigwise.com link The Times link The Guardian link Alternative Press 5 MP3.com link IGN link
The Automatic chronology
Not Accepted Anywhere (2006) Raoul EP (2006)
Singles from Not Accepted Anywhere
"Recover" Released: November 7, 2005 "Raoul" Released: March 27, 2006 "Monster" Released: June 5, 2006 "Recover (Re-Release)" Released: September 18, 2006 "Raoul (Re-Release)" Released: January 8, 2007 "Monster (USA release)" Released: June 5, 2007
Bonus Track Version
The US/Canadian version of "Not Accepted Anywhere" as "The Automatic Automatic"

Not Accepted Anywhere is the début album from Welsh indie rock band The Automatic, the initial release of the album took place June 19, 2006, prior to this release the singles "Raoul", "Recover" and their biggest hit to date "Monster" had all been released as singles. Around one year later the band began touring in the USA, playing SXSW, Vans Warped Tour and then going on their own headline USA tour, thus releasing "Not Accepted Anywhere" on 22 June 2007, the USA release saw the entire album remixed to give it a more live feel to it, to date the only single released in the USA is "Monster".⁶ The albums title is a spin off of the Mastercard promotional phrase "Accepted Everywhere".⁷

Production

Lyrical themes

The first track of the album "Thats What She Said" drones of unhappy day to day lives, waiting for the weekend to begin, much in a similar style to "Raoul", a sandwich shop owner working opposite the Cardiff studio that much of Not Accepted Anywhere was written, Raoul was revealed to be a metaphor for getting away from work; "Lets go see Raoul".⁸ "You Shout You Shout You Shout You Shout" makes fun of those who only listen to popular songs on the radio "So much trash on the radio today, Keep dancing in the routine way" without any personal views or opinions on the song.⁹ Both "Recover" and "Monster" hit out at drink and drug issues in the UK, with "Recover" about a waster trying to motivate themselves, "Get up" and "Recover", whilst "Monster" is about how binge drinking reveals the Monster in people.¹⁰¹¹ The track "Lost At Home", a slower song dealing with finding who you really are, "On The Campaign Trail" is a reference to American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.¹² "Team Drama" and "Seriously...I Hate You Guys" are both written about people who force there problems onto you with the lyrics in "Team Drama" "Walking crisis make sure everyone knows your pain Keep a surprise not your private lives to make sure we're all entertained" being a prime example of this.¹³ "By My Side", vocalist Robin Hawkins reported this was the track he was most happy with lyrically, screaming out "Is this the end of the world, i can't tell, its been like this so long" the song is about introspection and examining yourself to find out what you really want to be in life, as well as growing up. Many of "Rats" lyrics like "Thats What She Said" and "Raoul" refer to the day to day lives, and the music scene and people who follow the different scenes "If everyone in the room could hear themselves sing out of tune then they'd feel like i do".¹⁴

Name and Artwork

The Not Accepted Anywhere main cover depicts a number of related imagery to the songs themselves; Raoul is represented by a sandwich, the pill relates to Monster's line "without these pills, you're let loose", Keep Your Eyes Peeled is shown by alert eyes, and a sign saying home represents Lost at Home. Team Drama is represented by a baseball bat with drama written on it, and a rat sits on top of the banner which reads the automatic, obviously to show the song Rats, "Recover" is represented by a megaphone from the red megaphones used in the phaelon edit of the video. You Shout You Shout You Shout You Shout could also be represented by the megaphone. That's What She Said is represented by a speech bubble. Seriously...I Hate You Guys is represented by a small piece of paper that has 'HATE' scrawled on it several times.

The title not accepted anywhere was chosen from a number of ideas, however B-Unique did not agree with any other proposals the band made, including Now Here In Nowhere which was a favorite for the band mates, but it summarized where the band were at, being on the road all the time.¹⁵

The artwork itself was designed and created by D*Face (Richard Stockton), who also worked on some of the bands other art including that for "Raoul"¹⁶

Promotion

The band on the NME Tour, the final UK Tour for the album Not Accepted Anywhere

Prior to the debut album of The Automatic's release, both songs "Raoul", and "Recover" were released as singles, Recover was released late 2005, and was not chart eligible, however "Raoul", released late spring was eligible for the UK charts. As well as promotion from the two singles, The Automatic co-headlined the Topman/NME New Music Tour with other acts including Boy Kill Boy, ¡Forward Russia!, The Long Blondes and Howling Bells.

Once the album was released on June 19, 2006, with new single "Monster", which smashed previous single "Raoul", chart topping at No.4 in the UK charts, the band played Reading and Leeds festivals, and a number of other gigs. See The Automatic tour history. Tablature of the album is also now available. ¹⁷

After the NME Awards Indie Rock Tour 2007 the band began promoting in the USA, On June 26, 2007 The Automatic release "Not Accepted Anywhere" in the USA and Canada, this comes prior to their Vans Warped Tour. Their first US single, "Monster", was released on April 24, 2007. ¹⁸ This release of Not Accepted Anywhere comes a year after the UK release. The band are promoting in the USA through the Vans Warped Tour.

Personnel

Musicians

• James Frost - Guitar, backing vocals
• Robin Hawkins - Lead vocals, bass guitar
• Iwan Griffiths drums, percussion, vocals
• Alex Pennie - Keyboards, Vocals, Synthesizers, Backing Percussion

Mixing and Production

• Stephen Harris
• Steve Sedgewick
• Richard Jackson
• Ian Broudie
• Jon Gray
• Steve Davis
• Tim Speed
• Paul Durrant
• Luke Jones

Track listing

Reception

Not Accepted Anywhere received a somewhat mixed reaction from critics; whilst some praised the band for their individuality, in particular areas such as Alex Pennie's high-pitched vocals, however this individuality setting them aside from many other bands was subject to much criticism, Alex Pennie even admits

Fans have criticized the record label B-Unique Records for not picking up By My Side as a single, band members also choose it to be the favorite on the album.

Much of the album was written in a very short amount of time, the band worked over the Christmas break of 2005 to complete it for their deadline, which is in the opinion of the band of why some of there tracks sound to similar, Rob also stated at the time of recording it took him several takes on recording his voice at the time.²¹

Chart performance

The album itself hit No. 3 in the UK Album Chart. Four of the five UK singles were also entered to UK Singles Charts. Monster topped all 4, hitting number 4, whilst Recover reached 25, and Raoul releases reached 34 and 44.^{22 23}

References

External links

• The Automatic