Suburban Voodoo
1983 album by Paul Carrack
Suburban Voodoo is the second solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Paul Carrack. In between his previous solo album (1980's Nightbird) and this release, Carrack had been a member of Squeeze, singing lead on their 1981 hit "Tempted".
The band on this album, dubbed Noise To Go, was the result of arrangement between Nick Lowe and Carrack to provide backing on each other's albums. The same group of musicians, but with Lowe as lead vocalist, is heard on Lowe's albums Nick the Knife (1982) and The Abominable Showman (1983).
The album reached #78 on the Billboard 200, and includes Carrack's first chart hit as a solo artist, "I Need You", which peaked at #37 in the US in October 1982.
Thirty years after the release of this LP, Carrack re-recorded the Suburban Voodoo album track "From Now On" (in a very different arrangement) for his 2012 album Good Feeling.
Reception
AllMusic's William Ruhlmann notes retrospectively that Suburban Voodoo "sounds very much like a (Nick) Lowe album with Carrack singing. That's all to the good, though, since Carrack's supple voice is well-suited to Lowe's updated '60s rock & roll style." Ruhlmann goes on to call Suburban Voodoo "an unusually tuneful album."
Jim Green of Trouser Press also noted the Nick Lowe connection, writing that "Suburban Voodoo sounds like the souled-up flipside of Nick the Knife — if anything, it's better. Yet it succeeds because of Lowe's production and composing presence, which complements Carrack's excellent voice with the kind of pop smarts that bring out his best."
Track listing
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
The public source identifies “Suburban Voodoo” as 1983 album by Paul Carrack. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Suburban, Voodoo and album.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Suburban Voodoo”, the useful work is to connect “1983 album by Paul Carrack” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q48817799. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Suburban Voodoo”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Suburban Voodoo primary sources, Suburban Voodoo archive and Suburban research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Suburban Voodoo”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Suburban Voodoo” 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.