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So Much Water So Close to Home
Studio album by Paul Kelly and the Messengers
Released	August 1989
Recorded	February–March 1989
Studio	Ocean Way Studios, Los Angeles
Genre	Folk rock
Length	40:58
Label	Mushroom/White (AUS/NZL) A&M (Rest of World)
Producer	Scott Litt, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly and the Messengers chronology
Under the Sun (1987) So Much Water So Close to Home (1989) Comedy (1991)
Singles from So Much Water So Close to Home
"Sweet Guy" Released: July 1989 "Careless" Released: 23 October 1989 "Most Wanted Man in the World" Released: 12 February 1990

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Rolling Stone

So Much Water So Close to Home is an album by Australian rock band Paul Kelly and the Messengers and was originally released in August 1989. The title comes from a short story of the same name by author Raymond Carver. Carver died in August 1988. Kelly co-wrote the score for the 2006 Australian film Jindabyne, which was also based on the same story. The entire album was recorded in the U.S. with producer Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M. It was released on Mushroom/White Records in Australia & New Zealand and A&M Records for the rest of the world. The album peaked at #10 on the ARIA album charts, but none of its singles, "Sweet Guy", "Careless" and "Most Wanted Man in the World" had any Top 40 chart success. All tracks for the album were written by Kelly, who provided vocals, guitar and harmonica and also co-produced with Litt.

Background

Paul Kelly had formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls in 1985, named for a group mentioned by Lou Reed in "Walk on the Wild Side". For international releases from 1987 on, they used the name Paul Kelly and the Messengers to avoid possible racist interpretations. They released Gossip in 1986 on Mushroom Records in Australia and in 1987 on A&M Records for international release. Under the Sun was released in 1987 in Australia and in 1988 internationally.

Their next album, So Much Water So Close to Home was released in 1989 as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers in all markets. It peaked at #10 on the ARIA album charts, but none of its singles reached the ARIA Top 40 Singles charts. The entire album was recorded in the U.S. with producer Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M. Litt had re-mixed some of Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls' tracks from Gossip for its US release as by Paul Kelly and the Messengers. So Much Water So Close to Home was released on Mushroom/White Records in Australia and A&M Records in the United States and Europe in 1989.

The title comes from a 1975 short story of the same name by author Raymond Carver (later collected in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love). Album track, "Everything's Turning to White" is based on Carver's short story, it describes the tale of recreational fishermen who find a dead woman's body but continue their trip for three days before reporting their discovery to police. Kelly would go on to co-write the score for the 2006 Australian film Jindabyne, which was also based on the same story. In 1991 Paul Kelly and the Messengers released their next album Comedy.

Track listing

All tracks written by Paul Kelly.

Side 1

1. "You Can't Take It with You" – 2:43
2. "Sweet Guy" – 3:38
3. "Most Wanted Man in the World" – 3:38
4. "I Had Forgotten You" – 2:59
5. "She's a Melody (Stupid Song)" – 4:31
6. "South of Germany" – 3:16

Side 2

1. "Careless" – 2:57
2. "Moon in the Bed" – 3:03
3. "No You" – 4:19
4. "Everything's Turning to White" – 4:11
5. "Pigeon/Jundamurra" – 2:03
6. "Cities of Texas" – 3:40

Personnel

Paul Kelly and the Messengers

• Michael Barclay — drums, backing vocals
• Peter Bull — keyboards
• Steve Connolly — lead guitar
• Paul Kelly — guitar, vocals, harmonica
• Jon Schofield — bass guitar

Additional musicians

• Steve Berlin — baritone saxophone (track 2)
• Lenny Castro — congas (track 5)
• Paulinho da Costa — percussion (tracks 5, 7, 8)
• John Logan — harmonica (track 12)
• Lucky Oceans — pedal steel guitar (track 6)

Recording details

• Producer — Scott Litt, Paul Kelly
• Engineer — Scott Litt
  • Assistant — Clif Norrell, Jim Dineen
• Sequencer — David Russo (tracks 5, 9, 10)
• Studio — Ocean Way Studios, Los Angeles
  • Mastered — Precision Lacquer
  • Mixed — The Grey Room

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

1. "Australian Music Report No 795 – 23 October 1989 > Singles: New Releases". Australian Music Report. Retrieved 30 October 2020 – via Imgur.com.
2. AllMusic review
3. Rolling Stone magazine review
4. ^ McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Paul Kelly'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86448-768-2. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
5. ^ Holmgren, Magnus. "Paul Kelly". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
6. ^ "Jindabyne movie bios". Sony Films. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
7. "Literary Encyclopedia: Raymond Carver". The Literary Dictionary Company Limited. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
8. ^ "Jindabyne (2006) - Full cast and crew". Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved 3 November 2008.
9. ^ "Discography Paul Kelly". Australian Charts Portal. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
10. ^ "Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search engine". APRA. Retrieved 2 November 2008. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. YOU CANT TAKE IT WITH YOU
11. ^ Jenkins, Jeff; Ian Meldrum (2007). Molly Meldrum presents 50 years of rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic.: Wilkinson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
12. Farber, Jim (2 November 1989). "Paul Kelly: So Much Water So Close to Home". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 May 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
13. DeGagne, Mike. "So Much Water, So Close to Home Overview". allmusic. Retrieved 3 November 2008.
14. "Australiancharts.com – Paul Kelly – So Much Water So Close to Home". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
15. "Charts.nz – Paul Kelly – So Much Water So Close to Home". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
16. ^ "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Albums Chart – 1989 (61–100)". imgur.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016. N.B. The triangle symbol indicates platinum certification.

• 1989 albums
• Albums produced by Scott Litt
• Paul Kelly (Australian musician) albums
• Mushroom Records albums