Andy Bell's new solo album Pinball Wanderer, his third in recent years, comes out tomorrow. It's been trailed by his cosmische cover of The Passion's I'm In Love With A German Film Star, a cover that has vocals by Dot Allison and guitar by Michael Rother, and more recently by an eight and a half minute track called Apple Green UFO.
Apple Green UFO is a groove, a psychedelic monster, starting out funky and swampy like an offcut from The Stone Roses' Second Coming, but one that outdoes most of the songs that ended up on that album, or the 1990 B-side Something's Burning spliced with Can at their grooviest, with a guitar solo in the middle that is a murky, fuzzed up delight. There's a recurring organ/ horn part that gurgles away too, adding to the fun. Andy says the song started as an acoustic Led Zeppelin groove and then turned into a version of Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg. After hitting play repeatedly I can confirm that Apple Green UFO sounds like it does indeed carry the seeds of all these things inside it but still comes up smelling like something new. The album, out tomorrow, promises to be a big part of the soundtrack to spring 2025.
3 comments:
Ordered my copy already but it will be delivered four weeks ahead in Germany
I have highly rated every Andy Bell solo album to date and this is promising to be no exception.
I noticed the “other” Andy Bell has also just released a solo album. I’m hoping lots of Erasure fans buy Pinball Wanderer by mistake & then realise it’s a keeper!
Really looking forward to this, the German Film Star cover is excellent and other recent tracks have all been well worth hearing. I'm sure the money will come in handy but I'm hoping his rumoured bass duties on the upcoming Oasis tour don't derail his solo work too much. I'm sure it'll make a lot of people very happy but it doesn't float my boat...
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