On the Beach (Chris Rea album)
On the Beach is the eighth studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1986, and built on the success of the preceding "Shamrock Diaries". It reached No. 11 in the UK Albums Chart (and also in Sweden), topped the Dutch charts (where it charted for more than nine months), reached number two in West Germany and No. 4 in New Zealand (where is also spent more than nine months in the charts). It reached the Top 10 in Norway and Czechoslovakia. In 2019, a deluxe remastered version of the album was  released. Songs. In an interview for the deluxe edition of the album, Rea said of the song "Giverny", written after a visit to Monet's celebrated home, "I didn't want to be there. I was only there because she (his wife, Joan) was there... so there's kinda, a funny twist to it". Critical reception. Allmusic notes that, "while "The Road to Hell" shows the darker side of Rea's worldview, "On the Beach" is an excellent introduction to his brighter, more optimistic songwriting". A retrospective review finds that the album "taps into the same kind of jazzy, introspective  pop/soul sound that the likes of John Martyn, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison were flirting with in the same period, helped by an excellent band including Fairport Convention/XTC drummer Dave Mattacks", adding that "Little Blonde Plaits" is "a vehicle for [Max] Middleton’s expressive Mini Moog, very redolent of his atmospheric playing on John Martyn’s "Glorious Fool"".