The Madding Crowd

Studio album by Nine Days

Released

May 16, 2000

Recorded

Tree Studios

Genre

Alternative rock, power pop, pop rock

Length

53:45

Nine Days chronology

Three
(1998)

The Madding Crowd
(2000)

So Happily Unsatisfied
(2002)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

The Madding Crowd Demos 1998/99
Demo album by Nine Days
Released	January 2013
Genre	Alternative rock, Indie rock
Length	54 minutes

The Madding Crowd is the major-label debut album by the American rock band Nine Days. It spawned to the major hit "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" and other single "If I Am". The Madding Crowd peaked at #67 on the Billboard Top 200. The album's title is a reference to Thomas Hardy's novel, Far From the Madding Crowd.

The Madding Crowd, despite not peaking inside the top 50 in the United States, was eventually certified gold within six months of release.

In January 2013, upon the relaunch of the band's official website, several old live recordings and demos were made available to the band's fans for the first time. Included among these were the original demos for The Madding Crowd.

These demos were recorded in 1998 and 1999 between the band's independently released album Three and their first mainstream hit of "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)."

Of the songs included in the demo album, five were later recorded and included on the actual release of the album in, more or less, an unaltered, though more produced, form. One more track, "Side To Side" carries the same melody and many of the same lyrics as "257 Weeks" but is not completely the same song.

While the tracks that remained nearly unaltered, the increased production is very evident on the official release of the album, especially on the tracks "Absolutely" and "Wanna Be." "Wanna Be" particularly is a faster track on the demo version, whereas the produced version is slower and more haunting.

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Wikipedia