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Hand Built by Robots

album by Newton Faulkner

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ3126688 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hand Built by Robots is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner. Produced by Mike Spencer, it was released on 30 July 2007 on Ugly Truth Records. Preceded by the single "Dream Catch Me", the album initially charted at number 3 in the UK album chart, and subsequently reached number one in its fourth week. Regarding the album's success, Faulkner stated, "I don't think anyone involved in Hand Built by Robots actually thought it would do that at all."

Writing and composition

Regarding the album's composition, Faulkner stated, in 2009, that the album was "actually quite rushed in a lot of ways. 'Dream Catch Me' was actually released before we finished the album, so we had to move really fast to complete Hand Built By Robots. The album wasn't the culmination of ten years worth of writing, but was a few months of panic, and a couple of things I had lying around - a couple of older songs that were still good enough to be used. [...] A lot of Hand Built By Robot's songs were written in the last few months leading up to recording, as I became better at writing."

Four tracks on the album were co-written with former Longpigs vocalist Crispin Hunt and two were co-written by Adam Argyle, who is perhaps best known for writing "Next Best Superstar" for Melanie C.

Album cover

The album cover art work includes a number of historical figures standing upon a robotic hand.

Release

"I Need Something" originally released on Newton's Full Fat EP and became the first single taken from Hand Built by Robots. It was available for download on 16 April 2007 and available to buy on 7 May, reaching #107 in the UK Charts in May 2007. The B-side is a live version of Newton's SpongeBob SquarePants theme, also including a special rendition of "Junglebob".

Editorial summary

“Hand Built by Robots” enters the record as album by Newton Faulkner. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hand, Built and Robots can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2007, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2007. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Hand, Built and Robots.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Hand Built by Robots” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hand, Built and Robots provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3126688. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007 and 2009.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Hand Built by Robots primary sources, Hand Built by Robots archive and Hand research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hand Built by Robots” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.