Unsound Methods is the fourth studio album by Recoil, released in 1997. It was recorded at Alan Wilder's home studio, The Thin Line, in Sussex, during sessions that lasted from September 1996 to March 1997. The album was produced by Alan Wilder, with assistance and coordination by Hepzibah Sessa, and additional production and engineering by Steve Lyon. The album was mixed by Wilder (with assistance from Paul Stevens and Simon Shazell).
Unsound Methods was Alan Wilder's fourth Recoil release (after three extended plays), and his first since his departure from his band Depeche Mode in June 1995.
The music was very different from previous Recoil offerings. According to Wilder, "...[T]he sound relates much more to the approach taken on Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and DevotionLP, which featured and combined lots of snatches of performance (with all their inherent feel). These parts were then sampled and sequenced utilizing all the available technology, to hopefully achieve something more interesting than the sound of a band playing together."[3]
Douglas McCarthy – Lead vocals on "Incubus" and "Stalker"
Siobhan Lynch – Lead vocals on "Drifting" and "Missing Piece", background vocals on "Control Freak" and "Stalker"–Punished Mix
Maggie Estep – Lead vocals on "Luscious Apparatus" and "Control Freak", background vocals on "Stalker"–Punished Mix
Hildia Campbell – Lead vocals on "Red River Cargo" and "Last Breath", background vocals on "Incubus" and "Control Freak", (also uncredited background vocals on "Missing Piece–Night Dissolves")
Hepzibah Sessa – Violin solo on "Missing Piece", talking on "Drifting" and "Last Breath", background vocals on "Incubus", "Control Freak", and "Shunt", assistance and coordination
Francis Ford Coppola is listed as a co-writer of "Incubus" as the song is filled with quotes from Apocalypse Now. Douglas McCarthy even sounds like Martin Sheen's Capt. Benjamin L. Willard. The album title also comes from a quote from Willard: "They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound."[citation needed]
Pat Boone and Ernest Gold are listed as a co-writer of "Last Breath" because an interpolation of their song "Exodus (This Land Is Mine)", from the 1960 film Exodus, is used.
Hildia Cambell was tapped to sing on the album after joining Depeche Mode as a touring singer during the Devotional Tour. She also sings on the song "Get Right with Me" on the Depeche Mode album Songs of Faith and Devotion.
Douglas McCarthy is the only collaborator to sing lead vocals on two Recoil albums. He also sang the single "Faith Healer" on the Bloodline album.
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