It’s week three of the roll-out of unreleased live versions of songs off The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, which means it’s time for “I Know It’s Over.” So here’s a nearly 8-minute version of the fan favorite recorded Aug. 25, 1986, at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Hear it right here.
Paul Weller’s latest album, A Kind Revolution, has been out for just three months, but the former Jam and Style Council frontman is already dabbling in new musical territory, with the surprise release over the weekend of the three-part Afrobeat-flavored single “Mother Ethiopia.” Stream all three versions here.
Leave it to Paul Westerberg to go off-schedule: After a string of Saturday song drops via his anonymous Soundcloud account, the former Replacement snuck out this week’s new song early, releasing “Come Hither,” a rollicking ode to morning coffee, last Wednesday. Stream it right here.
Peter Hook and Ministry have each covered “Dancing Madly Backwards” — a 1972 song by Captain Beyond, a psychedelic hard-rock act that featured members of Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple — for a split 12-inch single out this month on Cleopatra Records. Hear both versions, and the original, here.
The release of Gary Numan’s 21st album, Savage (Songs From a Broken World), is now just a little more than a month away, and the former Tubeway Army frontman has offered up the second taste of the new LP in the form of moody single “What God Intended.” Stream it here.
Sticking to his plan to release one-off songs inspired by the current political tumult, Billy Bragg has followed his raw, electric “The Sleep of Reason” — which addressed rising nationalism — with a quieter, climate-change themed song called “King Tide and the Sunny Day Flood.” Stream it here.
The plan to issue a previously unreleased live take of a song off The Smiths’ landmark third album The Queen is Dead continued today with the debut of a live recording of “Frankly Mr. Shankly” from the band’s concert at the Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee, Wisc., on Aug. 16, 1986. Stream it here.
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