Bonnie “Prince” Billy comes clean, The Hives are back in black (and white), Public Image Ltd. come to the end, Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall face off, Neil Young makes dreams come true and more — welcome to your plays of the week:
Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You is a tale as old as time. It’s an album. Its songs and music are by and for people together. For listening together. Before it gets too late. Bonnie “Prince” Billy stands at the nexus of all the kinds of music he can summon, with friends, with family and community. All roads roll though him. There can be no holding back. A million billion moments are on the line. He’s gonna tell us about a world…”
The Hives
The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Hives on a creative hiatus?Surely not? Yet, while it has been over 10 years since the Swedish band’s last album, 2012’s Lex Hives, anyone fearing they have fallen into the rock cliche of an act touring on past glories can rest easy. Yes, The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons is The Hives’ first full album in over a decade, but as its macabre title hints, the reason for the band’s absence from the studio has been uniquely and suitably The Hives. The group did not disappeare since their last long player. Along with several singles, a live album and a series of tours, to the outside world The Hives were still setting the pace. Yet inside the band, the lack of a new record was concerning… as was the increasingly long absence of The Hives’ founder, mentor and songwriter, the limelight-shunning Randy Fitzsimmons. As the title of the new record tells you, there was a problem… though possibly not the one you think. “Randy is really important to us, he was responsible for forming the band and the treasure trove of Hives songs are pretty much all his,” explains frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of Fitzsimmons’ pivotal behind the scenes role. “Randy never really went on tour, he didn’t want to be in the public eye, so we respected his wishes and didn’t reveal his identity, which I think pissed people off. Journalists wanted to uncover the secret, so increasingly we stopped talking about Randy out of respect for him but he was always key to The Hives.”
Public Image Ltd.
End Of World
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Public Image Ltd. (PiL) have decided to continue with the release of their 11th studio album and first album in eight years, End of World, following the sad passing of John’s wife of more than four decades, Nora Forster, on 5th April. Earlier this year, PiL released Hawaii, the most personal piece of songwriting and accompanying artwork that John Lydon has ever shared. The song is a love letter to Nora, who passed away from Alzheimer’s. A pensive, personal yet universal love song that has resonated with many since its release in January, the song sees John reflecting on their lifetime well spent and in particular one of their happiest moments together in Hawaii. John said, “Nora loved the album, she wouldn’t have wanted us to postpone it or change any of our plans.” Previously he has said of Hawaii, “It is dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most.”
Suzi Quatro & KT Tunstall
Face to Face
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Two generations of rock icons join forces on Face To Face, the new creative collaboration between Suzi Quatro and KT Tunstall. KT and Suzi recorded Face To Face — an album of original duets written by the duo — together in England, with Suzi’s son, LR Tuckey, serving as producer. The record covers themes of love and loss, fear and triumph — all essential to their experiences as groundbreaking women in rock. “I was a fan of KT from the first hit — liked her voice, her songwriting and her musicianship,” says Suzi. “We are indeed cut from the same cloth which is where our artistry met and flourished. A match made in heaven.” KT adds, “Working with Suzi has been such a beautiful flow state of friendship and creation. We work in her home, sitting on the floor, bare feet, and we talk WAY more than we write!! And then the songs just arrive so fast, like gifts from the universe.”
Various Artists
Tell Everybody! 21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The blues is a river with tributaries that flow into virtually every channel of American music. Dan Auerbach’s Nashville label Easy Eye Sound is charting a new course in “21st century juke joint blues.” The label’s new anthology Tell Everybody! is a bracing compilation, produced by Auerbach — winner of the Grammy Award as 2013 Producer of the Year, Non-Classical — featuring all new, exclusive recordings cut at Easy Eye Sound’s eponymous Nashville studio. From old masters to brilliant youngbloods, acoustic blues to roiling blues-rock, the collection is a fully realized survey of the blues tradition.”
Neil Young
Chrome Dreams
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chrome Dreams, one of Neil Young’s most individual and powerful albums, was scheduled to be released in 1977, but as is often the case with Young, things change. And then change again. What starts as one thing can often end up as another. For all those who have followed the singer-songwriter’s ever-evolving career, it’s best to let those changes happen. With Chrome Dreams, it has been a long time coming to this final version of an album that includes some of rock’s most unforgettable songs. And now it’s being released as Young envisioned it. Now is the time for Chrome Dreams to find its way into the world, as Young hears and sees it. The 12 songs on Chrome Dreams have existed in other forms at other times, and that is part of the creative process. Songs like Pocahontas, Like a Hurricane, Powderfinger, Homegrown, Stringman and Look Out for My Love join six other tracks to finally present Chrome Dreams as a guide into the world of a musician who leads the way into the future, never second-guessing what could have been.”
