Stranger to Stranger (Industry album)

Stranger to Stranger is the first and only album by American new wave band Industry released on Capitol Records and distributed by EMI in 1984. A Philippine CD version was later released and included an extended version of "Still of the Night".
The album features the most successful track "State of the Nation", an anti-war song that broke into European charts. It was a minor hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was a bigger hit in Europe and peaked at number ten in Sweden. The album peaked at No. 48 in Sweden.
After this album, Jon Carin started a successful solo and session musician career, becoming a permanent member of the Pink Floyd studio & live band and co-writing Pink Floyd's hit single "Learning to Fly". Unger and Perrone went on to form their own bands.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Bill Missett of the Blade Tribune called it a "worthy debut LP" that showed the band "continu to produce punchy, creative techno pop rock of pure mainstream quality". Mark Marymont of the Springfield News-Leader summarised, "Industry manufactures pop music. It won't break any new musical barriers with what it does, but the group does manage to produce some entertaining music when it wants to." Warren Gerds, writing for the Gannett News Service, considered the "rock with romance" album to be "neither terrific nor bad". He wrote, "The quartet has an ear for dance rhythms, so the album isn't totally dull, but so many tunes are oh-so-predictable, and the musicianship is not all that compelling." Jim Zebora of the Record-Journal awarded the album a C grade. He believed that, while some are "pleasant and have enough of a hook to stick in your memory for a while", most of the songs are "featureless electronic nothings". He added, "Industry, thus, is a soundalike band playing mostly soundalike music has relatively little to say."

Track listing

Side one

"Still of the Night" - 4:06
"Until We're Together" - 3:59
"Romantic Dreams" - 3:53
"What Have I Got to Lose" - 4:03
"State of the Nation" - 4:33

Side two

"Shangri-La" - 3:47
"Communication" - 4:05
"All I Need Is You" - 2:55
"Stranger in a Strange Land" - 5:18
"Living Alone Too Long" - 4:07

Personnel

;Industry

Jon Carin – lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizer; acoustic guitar and "final bass pops" on "Until We're Together"
Brian Unger – guitar, vocals
Rudy Perrone – guitar, bass, vocals; lead vocals on "Shangri-La"
Mercury Caronia – drums, electronic percussion, vocals

with:

Vini Poncia – "virtuoso" tambourine on "What Have I Got to Lose"

Catalog number and format

Catalog: ST-12316
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album