Ain't Complaining

Ain't Complaining
Studio album by
Status Quo
Released6 June 1988[1]
StudioChipping Norton Recording Studios and Ridge Farm Studio, UK
GenreRock
Length52:16
LabelVertigo
ProducerPip Williams
Status Quo chronology
In the Army Now
(1986) 		Ain't Complaining
(1988) 		Perfect Remedy
(1989)
Singles from Ain't Complaining
  1. "Ain't Complaining"
    Released: 14 March 1988 [2]
  2. "Who Gets the Love?"
    Released: 9 May 1988 [3]
  3. "Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)"
    Released: 21 November 1988 [4]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Kerrang![6]

Ain't Complaining is the eighteenth studio album by British rock band Status Quo. Initially released on the Vertigo label on 6 June 1988, it was the group's first album on that label to fall short of the UK Top 10, breaking a streak of 12 studio albums in the process. It reached no higher than its entry position of number 12 in the UK Albums Chart. The band, however, reentered the Top 10 three years later with Rock 'til You Drop in 1991.

Ain't Complaining spawned three singles: the title track, the ballad "Who Gets the Love?" and the only UK Top 10 hit among them, "Burning Bridges", which partially incorporated the melody of the traditional folk song "Darby Kelly" within its distinctive instrumental breaks, without crediting it as such. John Edwards and Jeff Rich contributed compositions for the first time since joining Quo. "Another Shipwreck" had originally been a solo track by Andy Bown from his 1978 solo album Good Advice[7] and was released as a single[8] with him singing lead vocals.[9] On Ain't Complaining, Rossi sings the song.

An unusual move by Status Quo on this album was the use and endorsement of Charvel guitars.

"The music was too polite," Rick Parfitt later remarked of the album. "There was no weight behind what we were doing. The edge had gone; we weren't real anymore."[10]

  1. ^ "UK Albums 2". Statusquo.org.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  2. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Status Quo - Ain't Complaining". Hitparade.ch.
  3. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Status Quo - Who Gets The Love?". Hitparade.ch.
  4. ^ Hung, Steffen. "Status Quo - Burning Bridges (On And Off And On Again)". Hitparade.ch.
  5. ^ Thompson, Dave. "Status Quo Ain't Complaining review". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  6. ^ Reynolds, Dave (11 June 1988). "Review: Status Quo – Ain't Complaining". Kerrang!. 191. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd.: 18.
  7. ^ "Andy Bown - Another Shipwreck". Discogs.com. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Andy Bown - Good Advice". Discogs.com. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  9. ^ "TOPPOP: Andy Bown - Another Shipwreck". Retrieved 8 December 2022 – via YouTube.
  10. ^ Ling, Dave (March 2017). "R.I.P. Rick Parfitt". Classic Rock #233. p. 51.