Fat City (Shawn Colvin album)

{{Infobox album

| name = Fat City

| type = Album

| artist = Shawn Colvin

| cover = Shawn Colvin - Fat City.png

| alt =

| released = October 27, 1992

| recorded = Larry Klein's House

| venue =

| studio =

| genre =

| length = 55:34

| label = Columbia

| producer = {{hlist|Larry Klein|John Leventhal|Shawn Colvin|Kenny White|David Kahne}}

| prev_title = Steady On

| prev_year = 1989

| next_title = Cover Girl

| next_year = 1994

}}

Fat City is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin. It was released on October 27, 1992, on Columbia Records.

Fat City peaked at number 142 on the Billboard 200 and at number 2 on Billboard{{'}}s Top Heatseekers chart.[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r58735/charts-awards/billboard-album|pure_url=yes}} Billboard album milestones] from Allmusic "Round of Blues" and "I Don't Know Why" charted on Billboard{{'}}s Modern Rock Tracks and Adult Contemporary single charts, respectively.[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r58735/charts-awards/billboard-single|pure_url=yes}} Billboard singles milestones] from Allmusic "Tenderness on the Block" is a cover version of a song released on Warren Zevon's 1978 album Excitable Boy. Opening track "Polaroids" provided the title of her greatest hits album Polaroids: A Greatest Hits Collection, which was released in 2004.

Songwriting

In an interview with Performing Songwriter magazine, Colvin described how she co-wrote songs for Fat City:[http://www.taxi.com/faq/ar/colvin.html Born to be Telling her Story], from Performing Songwriter magazine via taxi.com, an A&R company

:The way that I generally co-write is that someone else writes the music or part of the music. Like on "Round of Blues" I wrote the whole song but Larry Klein said that it needed a bridge. So he wrote the bridge and I wrote the words to it. But Elly [Brown] and I really shared every part of ["Set the Prairie on Fire"] equally. She wrote some of the words, I wrote some of the words, she wrote some of the music, I wrote some of the music.

Reception

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|last=Woodstra|first=Chris|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/fat-city-mw0000088837|title=Fat City – Shawn Colvin|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=July 16, 2024}}

| rev2 = Chicago Tribune

| rev2score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}{{cite news|last=Kening|first=Dan|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/11/12/shawn-colvinfat-city-columbia-starstarstar-12its-been/|title=Shawn Colvin: Fat City (Columbia)|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=November 12, 1992|access-date=July 16, 2024}}

| rev3 = Q

| rev3score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite magazine|last=Cooper|first=Mark|title=Shawn Colvin: Fat City|magazine=Q|issue=80|date=May 1993|page=89}}

| rev4 = Rolling Stone

| rev4score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|last=D'Erasmo|first=Stacey|author-link=Stacey D'Erasmo|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/shawncolvin/albums/album/152085/review/5942130/fat_city|title=Shawn Colvin: Fat City|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=January 7, 1993|access-date=November 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709002024/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/shawncolvin/albums/album/152085/review/5942130/fat_city|archive-date=July 9, 2008|url-status=dead}}

| rev5 = The Village Voice

| rev5score = C{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|url=https://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/ts92-92.php|title=Turkey Shoot|newspaper=The Village Voice|date=December 1, 1992|access-date=July 16, 2024}}

}}

In Rolling Stone, Stacey D'Erasmo described Fat City as "a fatter, happier record" than Colvin's 1989 debut Steady On and commended "her ability to convey the ambivalent wonder of meeting happiness as if for the first time."