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PRODUCTRECOMMENDED ALBUM OF THE WEEK
23.08.13MusicWeek 51
TRACK OF THE WEEK
Double No.1, multi-platinum selling, Brit nominated, acoustic
FAULKNER Studio Zoo
NEWTON (RCA)
guitarist Newton Faulkner is set to release his new album Studio Zoo next week, with lead single Losing Ground to follow on September 8. Faulkner made history while making the album as he live-
streamed the entire recording process 24/7 for five weeks from his home studio. At the start of the project, he said: “I am as excited as I am terrified by the prospect of having a house full of cameras film me while trying to record an album. The entire recording process will be streamed live and nothing has been recorded in advance. The album will be made before your very eyes, no tricks, no producer and no engineer, just me, a guitar and a few surprise guests.” Those guests included Ted Dwayne (Mumford & Sons) and X
Factor’s Janet Devlin. Newton’s last album Write It On Your Skin went straight to
No.1 in the UK, as did his double platinum debut record Hand Built By Robots. Faulkner has sold over 1.5 million albums in the UK alone, has
August 26 INCOMING ALBUMS
HAIM Days Are Gone (Polydor Records)
San Fernando Valley sisters Haim have finally announced details of their highly-anticipated
debut album. Days Are Gone was created over a series of LA-based studio sessions with producers Ariel Rechtsaid (Major Lazer, Vampire Weekend, Usher) and James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & The Machine, Simian Mobile Disco). It’s described as a “shimmering guitar- fuelled, West Coast pop” record that has been entirely co-written by the trio. Haim began 2013 as the BBC Sound
of 2013 winners off the back of two limited-edition EPs and a handful of sold- out UK live dates. The band has spent the past 18
months relentlessly touring the globe. They return to the UK later this summer, with a European winter tour to be announced imminently.
SEPTEMBER 30
LISA STANSFIELD Seven (Monkeynatra)
Following her sell-out European tour earlier this year, Lisa Stansfield is releasing her long-awaited new
album Seven this autumn. Her career has spanned over three
decades, 20 million record sales and a string of international Top 10 hits including: Around The World, Change, All Woman and Someday. The new LP marks Stansfield’s
seventh studio release and has had the Grammy nominated, multi BRIT and Ivor Novello winner return to the studio to record with longtime songwriting partner Ian Devaney. It was recorded in LA and Manchester, with other collaborators John ‘JR’ Robinson, (known as the most recorded drummer in history) and Grammy award winning Jerry Hey. The album release will be followed by
a string of UK live dates in November. OCTOBER 7
THE OVERTONES Saturday Night At The Movies ((Warner Music Entertainment) After over 500,000 sales of their two Top 10 albums Good Ol’ Fashioned Love and Higher, The Overtones
return with their new album Saturday Night At The Movies. Comprising some of the most-loved
songs in cinematic history, the 16-track album finds The Overtones reinvigorating iconic songs from famous films such as Grease, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, Cocktail and The Jungle Book in their own style. Lachie Chapman of the group said of
the record: “We see from our concerts that our fans want to get up, dance and have a great night out. We’ve worked to get real stonkers in there – songs that will put a smile on people’s faces and a dance-step in their feet.” In addition, the album includes three brand new compositions.
NOVEMBER 4
most recently performed at Isle Of Wight festival, and finished a sold out world tour earlier this year, which took him to Australia and the Far East.
September 8
KATY PERRY Roar
(Virgin/EMI)
Roar is the first single to be taken from Katy Perry’s forthcoming album Prism, the follow up to 2010’s Teenage Dream LP, from which she achieved the accolade of the most Top 10 singles from one studio album by a female solo artist. She clocked up seven Official Singles Chart Top 10s from Teenage Dream (including the deluxe edition, Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection): California Gurls (No.1), Teenage Dream (No.2), Firework (No.3), ET (No.3), Last Friday Night (TGIF) (No.9), Part Of Me (No.1) and Wide Awake (No.9). Buzz has been drummed up
around Roar with it recently going to radio along with a lyric video online which is already nearing 5.5 million views in just two days. Album Prism, has been
promoted with big gold trucks being sent out into busy traffic zones in various areas across the US. It’s out on October 22.
STAFF PICK: PAUL WILLIAMS, HEAD OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS
ELTON JOHN The Diving Board ((Mercury)
Check the calendar because it could be the dawn of the Seventies again. In hot pursuit of David Bowie, Rod Stewart and Black Sabbath’s chart- topping returns comes Elton John with a back- to-basics album that musically sends him right back to early gems like Tumbleweed Connection and Empty Sky. Just like on those early albums, The
Diving Board is very often just piano or voice, or at most minimal accompaniment, meaning the songs have no place to hide; they have to be good. Thankfully he and his long-time lyricist Bernie Taupin have strongly delivered, justifying the new set to be
spoken of in the same breath as his classic first albums. Highlights are aplenty, but include the self-explanatory Oscar Wilde Gets Out, the instantly- catchy Can’t Stay Alone Tonight and the title track, on which he sagely reflects about the price of fame. Under the brilliant
stewardship of T-Bone Burnett, who produced Elton’s 2010 Leon Russell collaboration The Union, the album is given a further freshness by having largely been recorded
as live performances, some of it within the space of just a few days. That harks back to the old days when he was regularly putting out two albums a year, but this set is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Quite simply, Elton has made his
best album in more than a decade. OUT SEPTEMBER 16
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