Spartacus by The Farm

Spartacus, the Farm's debut, arrived on 4 March 1991, and it's Liverpool's stake in the baggy boom: shuffling dance-rock grooves with a big shout-along chorus in every pocket. The band had settled their lineup back in 1987, and when a record deal fell apart they started their own label, Produce Records. Most of the album was cut in London in 1990 with Suggs, the former Madness frontman, producing, while one older track from 1987 came courtesy of the Housemartins' Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore.

Under the loose-limbed beats you can hear the influence of Buzzcocks, the Clash and the Jam. "Groovy Train" and "All Together Now" had already been top 10 hits the year before, and the album went all the way to number one in the UK. Reviews were mostly warm, though some critics had doubts about the songwriting, and the band followed it with a US tour alongside Big Audio Dynamite.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.