American Music Club songwriter extraordinaire Mark Eitzel has announced his latest solo album, and he’s bringing former Suede guitarist and Ben Watt collaborator Bernard Butler along for the ride.
Hey Mr. Ferryman, Eitzel’s tenth solo album and first in three years, is out January 27 on Merge. It was recorded at 355 Studios in London with Butler, who played all the electric guitar, bass, and keyboard parts on the record.
The album’s first single, a beautifully weathered song called “The Last Ten Years”, is available to stream below via Soundcloud.
“The songs on this record are about celebrating musicians and music, about misogyny, the long shadow of history, getting one’s head out of one’s ass,” says Eitzel in a press release. “Also oceans, blood, skies, hearts, gay pioneers, carpenters, weeping women, and how death waits for you even in the happiest place on earth: Las Vegas.”
When we interviewed Butler a few weeks ago before his North American tour with Watt, he told us that he loves producing “music that I love and can add to… Music that has personality above all.”
The Grammy-winning producer (for Duffy’s 2008 LP Rockferry) elaborated: “I am not constricted by being in a group and unlike most producers/writers I am lucky to have a signature instrument. I am lucky that people want to hear it. I just like being involved. I try to get artists to look at themselves from the other end of the room, try and make them wonder what could be.”
That alone should make a fascinating Eitzel record. Get a taste of what’s coming below.