| Unit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 7 November 1997 | |||
| Recorded | May−August 1997 | |||
| Studio | "The Dirty Room", Brisbane, Australia | |||
| Length | 36:17 (Unit) 50:50 (Unit Re-Booted) | |||
| Label | Eastwest | |||
| Producer | Regurgitator,Magoo | |||
| Regurgitator chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Unit | ||||
| ||||
Unit is the second studio album by Australian rock bandRegurgitator, released in November 1997. Its style is a mixture of 1980s style synthesisedpop music andalternative rock, with somehip hop influences. The album debuted and peaked at number 4 on the ARIA Charts. At theARIA Music Awards of 1998, the album won fiveARIA Music Awards; includingAlbum of the Year.
In October 1998, the album was re-released asUnit Re-Booted, which included the album's fivemusic videos.
In 2012, Regurgitator performed the entire album along withTu-Plang on the Australian RetroTech tour.
The album was re-issued on vinyl by Valve in October 2013.
Regurgitator had just completed their eleventh extensive Australiantour (withThe Fauves and Tomorrow People), when they planned to start recording a follow-up to their first album,Tu-Plang. This was delayed when the band decided to make their third trip to America to do a tour with bandsHelmet andThe Melvins. Yeomans said of the tour, "I remember being completely frightened the whole time. They were real hard-arses. Helmet were a little army unit, and their fans were fucking really intense, really aggressive guys. Yeah, really full-on. So maybe it did have an effect."[1] In 2008, manager Paul Curtis recalled that Yeomans had also stated "thank godGrinspoon came along because they took all the male angst away from our shows".[2]
Upon return, the group rented a condemned warehouse inBrisbane'sFortitude Valley to write and recordUnit. They affectionately named this studio "The Dirty Room". Yeomans said, "Martin did a lot of the set up –Magoo as well – and they put in carpet underlay that they'd found somewhere that was just filthy. Ergh! It had this real soporific effect as soon as you walked in and you just wanted to fall asleep. One of the funny stories isRob Cavallo coming in to have a listen to one of the tracks, and he just fell asleep on this piss-stained mattress we had lying on the ground. It was a really dingy vibe."[1]
Regurgitator had begun experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers on their first album,Tu-Plang. Amongst the gear that Yeomans and Ely were using at the time was theClavia Nord Lead, theAkai S3000XL, the Farfisa Super Bravo Organ and the newly released Roland MC-303 "Groovebox, which featured on a number of tracks including "Unit" and "Polyester Girl".[3] Ely stated that the track that ultimately helped the band decide the change in musical direction was the ironically titled "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff", which began as a punk rock track with some keyboard but gradually "breaking it down with a more minimal keyboard heavy sound, leaving off most of the distorted guitar attack, and adding a vocoder gave the song something we were excited and terrified by at the same".[2][3] Magoo added, "Martin said, 'Let's go fullUltravox!" We started going, let's record the drums without cymbals. Let's have the keyboards play the basslines."[4]
After 6 weeks of recording, the album was completed on 2 August 1997.
It has been labelled as being less guitar-based than their previous work.[5] "Everyday Formula" was chosen as the lead single since its heavier sound would be less of a departure for the band's old fans.[5] The guitars on that song have been described as being overly "fuzzy" and almost "cartoonish", in contrast to their previous albumTu-Plang.[6]AllMusic believed that the album had a strong 1980s synthesizer pop influence, unlikeTu-Plang which had more of a contemporary 1990s sound. They wrote that "pleasant, melodic pop songs take over fromTu-Plang's hip hop/metal/funk disasters like 'Couldn't Do It'".[7] Some tracks like "!" and "Polyester Girl" have been called almost entirely electronic songs.[6]
The cover is a large, plain yellow circle centred on a plain silver background. On the outside surface of the jewel CD case is a transparent sticker with the words "REGURGITATOR" and "UNIT" printed in black for identification in stores. This minimalist design, credited to "The Shits" (Quan Yeomans andJanet English) and Ben Ely, won the 1998ARIA award for best cover art.
Unit Re-Booted has very similar cover art, and came in four bright colour variations – lime green, purple, royal blue and peach-orange. On the re-releases, the title text was printed directly onto the paper.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [7] |
In October 2010, the album was listed in the top 30 in the book,100 Best Australian Albums.[8] In July 2011, the album was voted 10th inTriple J's Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time. In December 2021, the album was listed at no. 14 inRolling Stone Australia's '200 Greatest Albums of All Time' countdown.[9]
Regurgitator played Unit &Tu-Plang in full on the RetroTech Tour in 2012.
In 2017, Regurgitator played a special one-off show at theGold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre celebrating 20 years of Unit, with the show calledUNIT20. The show was filmed & was later released on DVD in 2019.
In 2022, the album was included in the Oceania line of the331⁄3 book series.[10]
In 2023, Regurgitator toured around Australia for 25 years of Unit, withCustard,DZ Deathrays,Butterfingers &Glitoris.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff" | B. Ely | 2:35 |
| 2. | "Everyday Formula" | Q. Yeomans | 2:12 |
| 3. | "! (The Song Formerly Known As)" | Q. Yeomans | 3:25 |
| 4. | "Black Bugs" | B. Ely | 3:00 |
| 5. | "The World of Sleaze" | Q. Yeomans | 3:25 |
| 6. | "I Piss Alone" | Q. Yeomans | 2:05 |
| 7. | "Unit" | B. Ely/M. Lee/Q. Yeomans | 1:42 |
| 8. | "I Will Lick Your Arsehole" | Q. Yeomans | 3:20 |
| 9. | "Modern Life" | B. Ely | 2:23 |
| 10. | "Polyester Girl" | Q. Yeomans | 3:33 |
| 11. | "1234" | B. Ely | 0:51 |
| 12. | "Mr T" | B. Ely | 3:08 |
| 13. | "Just Another Beautiful Story" | Q. Yeomans | 4:38 |
| Total length: | 36:17 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Everyday Formula" | 2:12 |
| 2. | "Black Bugs" | 3:00 |
| 3. | "Polyester Girl" | 3:33 |
| 4. | "! (The Song Formerly Known As)" | 3:25 |
| 5. | "Modern Life" | 2:23 |
| Total length: | 14:33 | |
| Chart (1997–1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] | 4 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[12] | 7 |
| Chart (1997) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart[13] | 93 |
| Chart (1998) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart[14] | 20 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[15] | 3× Platinum | 210,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | November 1997 | EastWest | 3984212761 | |
| United Kingdom | 1998 | CD | Coalition | |
| Australia | October 1998 |
| EastWest | 3984252602 |
| Australia | October 2013 | Valve | V131V |
