Hüsker Dü co-leader Grant Hart returns this summer with his long-in-the-works The Argument, a double album based on John Milton’s epic “Paradise Lost,” on which Domino Record Co. says Hart “distills its essence into pop and rock concoctions that nimbly flit through the history of 20th century music from Irving Berlin and David Bowie to… Hüsker Dü, even.”
The 20-track album is due out July 22 on CD, double vinyl and digitally, and Domino is offering up two songs — “Is the Sky the Limit?” and “Letting Me Out” — from the project to help fans get an idea about what The Argument (“a double album in two halves”) is about.
You can see the record’s full tracklist, and stream those two songs, below.
According to Domino, Hart was inspired by a visit to a friend:
“While visiting James Grauerholz, former friend and secretary for William S. Burroughs, James showed Grant an unpublished manuscript for Lost Paradise, William’s science fiction story which portrays the fallen angels as men from distant planets and God as none other than fellow Missourian Harry S. Truman. James and Grant discussed adding music to William’s story much in the same way that Tom Waits and William conspired to turn the German folk tale Die Freishutz into The Black Rider as staged by Robert Wilson. From that point the seed had been planted, and the seed grew into the most beautiful tree in the garden of Grant’s career.”
Hart is set to preview the material from The Argument — his first new album since 2009’s Hot Wax — on a 12-date tour of Ireland, Northern Ireland and London in late May and June (see full details below).
Tracklist: Grant Hart, The Argument
1. “Out Of Chaos”
2. “Morningstar”
3. “Awake, Arise!”
4. “If We Have The Will”
5. “I Will Never See My Home”
6. “I Am Death”
7. “Sin”
8. “Letting Me Out”
9. “Is The Sky The Limit?”
10. “Golden Chain”
11. “So Far From Heaven”
12. “Shine, Shine, Shine”
13. “It Isn’t Love”
14. “War In Heaven”
15. “Glorious”
16. “(It Was A) Most Disturbing Dream”
17. “Underneath The Apple Tree”
18. “The Argument”
19. “Run For The Wilderness”
20. “For Those Too High Aspiring”
Grant Hart tour dates:
May 31: Stout Fest 2013, Cork, Ireland
June 1: O’Keeffe’s, Clonmel, Ireland
June 2: The Townhouse, Galway, Ireland
June 7: McGarrigle’s, Sligo, Ireland
June 8: Spirit Store, Dundalk, Ireland
June 9: Sandino’s, Derry, Northern Ireland
June 13: Voodoo, Belfast, Northern Ireland
June 14: Cleere’s, Kilkenny, Ireland
June 15: McCarthy’s, Dingle, Ireland
June 16: Pine Lodge (afternoon), Myrtleville, Ireland
June 16: DeBarra’s (evening), Clonakilty, Ireland
June 18: Water Rats, London, UK
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Video: ‘Every Everything: The Music, Life & Times of Grant Hart’ official trailer
- Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart subject of new film by director of Replacements documentary
- Video: Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart half-hour performance, interview on Seattle’s KEXP
- Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart sets U.S. dates to promote reissue of Nova Mob’s debut
Sounds amazing. The second track “letting me out” has a Robert Pollard vibe to it