Jane from Occupied Europe
Jane from Occupied Europe is the second and final album by the English post-punk band Swell Maps. It was released in 1980 by Rather Records and Rough Trade. In 1989, the album was reissued with eight bonus tracks by Mute, and this edition was subsequently reissued in 2004 by Secretly Canadian.
Critical reception
In 2016, Paste ranked Jane from Occupied Europe at number 42 on its list of the best post-punk albums. In 2018, Pitchfork listed it as the 165th best album of the 1980s. Pitchforks Judy Berman wrote: "Swell Maps pasted mostly incomprehensible, drawled vocals into noisy, krautrock-inspired sound collages, straying further beyond the boundaries of any existing genre with each release. Their second album, Jane from Occupied Europe, marked the culmination of that trajectory. It was, most of all, a catalog of thrilling new sounds".Track listing
Songs without writer credits are credited on all editions as being collectively written by Swell Maps.Personnel
- Epic Soundtracks – drums, organ, toys, backing vocals, piano, handclaps, violin, mumbling, guitar, saxophone, concrete, typewriter
- Nikki Sudden – guitar, toys, vocals, organ, handclaps, bass, eiderdown, mumbling, piano
- Jowe Head – guitar, toys, bass, saxophone, backing vocals, vocals, pianoforte
- Biggles Books – organ, toys, guitar, backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, handclaps, vocals, mumbling, bass
- Phones B. Sportsman – guitar, twelve string guitar, violin, kazoo, vocals, handclaps, backing vocals
- Golden Cockrill – handclaps, backing vocals, bass
- Barry Gray – organ