Green Man (album)

Green Man
Studio album by
Mark Owen
Released2 December 1996
Recorded1995–1996
StudioAbbey Road Studios (London, England)
Genre
Length55:28
LabelRCA, BMG
ProducerJohn Leckie, Craig Leon
Mark Owen chronology
Green Man
(1996) 		In Your Own Time
(2003)
Singles from Green Man
  1. "Child"
    Released: 25 November 1996
  2. "Clementine"
    Released: 3 February 1997
  3. "I Am What I Am"
    Released: 11 August 1997
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Music Week[2]

Green Man is the debut solo album from English singer-songwriter Mark Owen. The album was released through RCA and BMG on 2 December 1996, months after the official split of his former boyband, Take That. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London. Three singles were released from the album: "Child", "Clementine" and "I Am What I Am". The album peaked at number 33 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was re-released in 2003 following the release of his second studio album, In Your Own Time which had been released earlier that year. Green Man has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

Green Man was written entirely by Mark Owen himself (except for two tracks): "The easiest option for Mark Owen who came out of Take That was to get some other people to write some nice catchy pop tunes, and maybe I could have done that for a couple of years. Then I probably would have been hated by everybody and fell by the wayside. But there wouldn’t have been an album unless I’d written it and it had come from me and I felt like it was my album. That’s all I was interested in."[3]

Unlike the dance-pop music of his former group Take That, Green Man sees Owen develop a sound influenced by Britpop and other forms of alternative rock. Working with alternative rock producer John Leckie, the album has been described as having an "attractive sheen" that "sounds like a cross between Radiohead and the Stone Roses", two bands that Leckie had worked with.[4] The album has also been described as an indie pop album.[5] Owen's former Take That bandmate Robbie Williams would also pursue a Britpop-influenced direction on his debut album Life thru a Lens (1997).[6]

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Green Man - Mark Owen". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 23 November 1996. p. 24. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  3. ^ Cameron, Keith (26 November 2014). "Mark Owen – 'I didn't give a damn about what was going on outside'". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  4. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Green Man - Mark Owen | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  5. ^ Jon O'Brien (18 April 2005). "How the Mighty Fall - Mark Owen | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  6. ^ John Bush (29 September 1997). "Life Thru a Lens - Robbie Williams | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 January 2016.