Elvis and Burt go all out, Genesis tune into the Beeb, Willie hearts Harlan, Slowthai gets up-close and personal, and Zappa does double duty. I don’t know whether that means March is coming in like a lamb or lion — but at least it’s arriving with some good tunes in tow. Your plays of the week:
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Songs of Bacharach & Costello, personally compiled by Elvis Costello, brings together all of the published songs that Costello has written with the legendary Burt Bacharach, one of the great composers of popular music in the 20th and now 21st century. The comprehensive 45-song set includes a remastered version of their 1998 album Painted From Memory; live performances of Bacharach and Costello performing several of the songs, as well as other beloved Bacharach numbers, with orchestras in New York and London; Costello performing stripped-down versions of the songs on his Lonely World Tour with Steve Nieve (the classically trained pianist and keyboard player in both The Attractions and The Imposters); and a selection of Bacharach and Hal David songs Costello has performed and recorded over the years, including I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, which Bacharach and Costello famously performed together on screen in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Meticulously compiled and thoughtfully sequenced with the invaluable help of compilation producer Steve Berkowitz, The Songs of Bacharach & Costello is the complete picture of the two songwriters enduring partnership and friendship.”
Genesis
BBC Broadcasts
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Genesis’s BBC Broadcasts is an extensive collection of broadcast material from one of the biggest-selling recording artists of all time and one of Britain’s most internationally renowned bands. Curated by founder member Tony Banks and the group’s long-time engineer and producer Nick Davis, the set is available as a 53-track five-CD set and 24-track triple LP. This is the first time all of these tracks have been released on vinyl and the first time a majority of the iconic 1987 Wembley show have been made available in an audio only format. These collections represent the cream of the group’s work recorded by the BBC between 1970 and 1998, and it includes contributions from all three of the group’s vocalists, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Ray Wilson. With notes by author Michael Hann, and packaged with a 40-page booklet, BBC Broadcasts contains favourites such as Home By The Sea, Mama, Duchess, Carpet Crawlers, No Son Of Mine, Turn It On Again and many more. With only a handful of these tracks previously officially available, BBC Broadcasts acts as both a collector’s cornucopia and an alternative “greatest hits.” Stretching from the very beginnings of the band’s career via appearances on Night Ride and John Peel, the set encompasses both of the group’s Knebworth performances (1978 and 1992) as well as their much-loved 1980 show at London’s Lyceum and triumphant sell-out run of shows at Wembley in 1987. Rounded out by material from the NEC in 1998 and Paris Theatre and Night Ride sessions from the early ’70s, as well as the much sought-after encore version of Watcher Of The Skies at Wembley Empire Pool in 1975, BBC Broadcasts is a veritable treasure trove.”
Willie Nelson
I Don’t Know A Thing About Love
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For his new album, Willie Nelson and band recorded fresh interpretations of 10 classic compositions penned by the legendary American songwriter Harlan Howard, an early musical contemporary of Willie’s who famously defined a great country song as “three chords and the truth.” In a career spanning six decades, Howard wrote many popular songs and enduring standards for a variety of artists. In 1961 alone, he had 15 compositions on the country charts, which earned him 10 BMI awards. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1973 and, in 1997, was inducted into both the Country Music Hall Of Fame and the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. Howard died in Nashville in 2002, at age 74, and was buried in Nashville. Featuring cover art by Micah Nelson (Willie’s son), I Don’t Know A Thing About Love was produced by longtime musical collaborator Buddy Cannon and debuts 10 studio performances. The band on the album includes Nelson (Trigger, lead vocals), Larry Paxton (bass, tic tac bass), Lonnie Wilson (drums), Bobby Terry (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), James Mitchell (electric guitar), Mike Johnson (steel guitar), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), Jim “Moose” Brown (piano, synthesizer, B3 organ, Wurlitzer), Wyatt Beard (background vocals), and Melonie Cannon (background vocals).”
Slowthai
Ugly
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Ugly album cover is up-close and personal, with the camera zooming in on the left side of British rapper Slowthai — real name: Tyron Kaymone Frampton. The title of the album — an acronym for U Gotta Love Yourself — is freshly tattooed beneath his eye. Musically, the new album might just show a side of him that people haven’t yet heard. However, attentive listeners may have noticed this musical tendency before, on either his Mercury-nominated 2019 debut Nothing Great About Britain with the punk-rock gallop of Doorman or a collaboration with rock band Slaves (now renamed Soft Play) on the track Missing. “The first album was the sound of where I’m from and everything I thought I knew,” he says. “The second album is what was relevant to me at that moment in time, the present. And this album is completely me — about how I feel and what I want to be… it’s everything I’ve been leading up to.” Ugly is about reconnecting with first principles. Plunging into rock music, with as much singing as rapping, it is both a striking departure for slowthai and a return to Slowthai’s roots. “Music is about the feeling and emotion that goes into it. Like an artist making a painting, it’s the expression of that moment in time. I really felt like I didn’t want to rap, whereas before, rap was the only way I could express myself with the tools I had. Now that I have more freedom to create and do more, why wouldn’t we change it up?”
Frank Zappa
Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Presenting two previously unreleased concerts from Frank Zappa’s brief 1980’s band, the latest exciting live collection to be released from The Vault, Zappa 80: Mudd Club/Munich, offers fans an opportunity to hear two blistering shows recorded in two distinct settings: The intimate 240 capacity Mudd Club in New York City and the massive 12,000 seat German arena, Olympiahalle in Munich. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this historically significant release, marks the first time that full concerts have ever been released featuring the 1980 lineup of Zappa leading the five-strong band which included the dual vocal attack of Ike Willis and Ray White, Arthur Barrow on bass, Tommy Mars on keyboards, and newcomer David Logeman on drums. Additionally, this is the first posthumous release of this distinct, brief lineup, as Logeman, who replaced drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, would end up leaving when Colaiuta returned to the band. Previously only two tracks from these shows — Love Of My Life from Mudd Club and You Didn’t Try To Call Me from Munich — were ever released by Zappa on his CD live series, You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore. Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich is an opportunity to experience Zappa and his terrific yet transitory 1980 band playing two fantastic concerts at two very different venues for the first time.”
