Having taken nearly five years to write, record and produce, "The Full Spectrum" is the 5th album from "The Third Space", finally released on Monday 09 September, 2019. One reason it took so long, was that halfway through (in 2015) Joe took on a new job, working as a musician on cruise-ships, which meant he was out of the country a lot.

Having taken nearly five years to write, record and produce, "The Full Spectrum" is the 5th album from "The Third Space", finally released on Monday 09 September, 2019. One reason it took so long, was that halfway through (in 2015) Joe took on a new job, working as a musician on cruise-ships, which meant he was out of the country a lot. Subsequently, the opportunity to get together and work on songs became less and our musical sessions became fewer and more spaced out.

Much as with the previous albums, there was a considerable amount of overlap between this album and the last one.

The majority of these songs were written in the period March-June 2014. The exceptions to this are the opening track “I Want It” which Joe sent to Henk as a snippet the previous year; and “Juliet v Satellites” which Henk wrote on a trip to Cuba following a family reunion in 2018.

Opener “In the Eye of the Storm” is a rock song commemorating a week trapped in the Marriott hotel, New York City, during hurricane Sandy and its aftermath in October 2012.

“Other People’s Lives” – a jangly condemnation of busybodies who invade one's privacy with intrusive questions – was a comment on a nosy neighbour who was forever prying and is a good example of co-authorship: Joe wrote the verses; Henk the riff and chorus.

In the autumn of 2013, Joe sent Henk a 16 bar snippet he had recorded of the chorus to this new song, then called “What I Want”. The snippet included the bass line and haunting keyboard riff on the Twirly keyboard. The idea behind it, he explained, was that this was a song about addiction; whatever the addiction might be to. BUT – and this was the point – WHAT exactly the addiction was to, would remain unspecified. After various iterations, and re-titled “I Want It”, it evolved into its current manifestation, in no small part due to producer Will Manwaring’s magic.

“King of the World” was written by Henk during a skiing trip in Val Thorens at easter 2014. A jangly, poppy, straightforward love song, almost everything that can go wrong does go wrong in the protagonist's life...but he just doesn't care because he is "in love with a girl".

“Montmartre in the Rain” is a piano led ditty, written by Joe, that recalls a trip to Paris in November 2014, when Joe and Henk walked for hours through rainy Montmartre in the early hours, looking for shelter and peace from spectres of ghosts past.

“Juliet v Satellites” is a jangly, ska-influenced pop jaunt through one of the most volatile flashpoints in any relationship – navigating whilst driving!

The dreamy Richard-Hawley-meets-the-Smiths jangle fest “Not Waving, But Drowning” is a rumination on suicide and takes it's title from the famous Stevie Smith poem. It started life as an instrumental Joe had written. But Henk heard something of the sea in the music and thus steered the song there lyrically.

"A Month of Sundays" is The Third Space's attempt at a spiritual, a hymn, a love song to the idea of God. It started life as a riff and chord sequence Henk wrote, to which two melody lines were written – one by Henk and one by Henk and Joe together. Unable to decide between them, Henk ultimately mashed them together, which in places gives a counterpointal effect.
The phenomenon of life is profoundly mysterious. This song is a hymn to this mystery. In contrast to the heavier subject matter of the previous two songs, “On Holiday” is a ska-driven excitation on the throwaway theme of vacation. A completely straightforward calypso tinged celebration of a very simple theme: going on holiday!

The album’s closer “June in June” is a love song to Joe’s mother. But not – as might be expected – written by Joe, but by Henk. When we were teenagers, I (Henk) practically lived round Joe's house, staying round there more often than not and consequently becoming close to his Mum, June. We often used to share a cup of tea and a cigarette together. June was wonderful lady, full of joie-de-vivre, and slightly larger-than-life, with a frequent quote from Shakespeare on her lips, a fondness for Frank Sinatra and an unbounding capacity for love. Over the years I practically became “adopted” by June. One day (it wasn’t actually on my birthday, I don’t think, although my birthday is in June) she told me very generously that she thought of me a “a little bit (her) son” which touched me enormously. I guess when you are in late teenage (I might have been 19 then) you are looking for acceptance, and perhaps I was looking for it more than most. Anyway, it meant a lot to me. This is my tribute to the lovely June.

This album also saw us working with a new producer, the very talented Will Manwaring. Will had been associated with the Third Space since its inception, frequently guesting as a musician (guitar; bass; keyboards) on many songs and frequently engineering recording sessions. But following his enrolment at Bournemouth University to study sound engineering, we asked Will to produce, after Kevin Paul had produced the first four records.

Track listing:

1) In The Eye of the Storm 2) Other People's Lives 3) I Want It 4) King of the World 5) Montmartre in the Rain 6) Juliet v Satellites 7) Not Waving, But Drowning 8) A Month of Sundays 9) On Holiday 10) June in June

Drums: Max Saidi Drum Programming: Joe Farthing; Will Manwaring Bass: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede; Will Manwaring Guitars: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede; Will Manwaring Keys: Joe Farthing; Will Manwaring Vocals: Joe Farthing; Hendrik Kleinsmiede

Produced by: Will Manwaring