FIRST TASTE OF NEW ACOUSTIC ALBUM
The Liberation Acoustic series started about 10 years ago with a number of celebrated Australian artists– Diesel, Stephen Cummings, Joe Camilleri to name just a few – who relished the opportunity to revisit songs from across their expansive catalogues in a new un-complicated way.
Ian Moss and Mark Seymour for example just used guitars as did the late and great Billy Thorpe but others used the full band set up such as Baby Animals and The Church.
Liberation recorded and released over 30 albums in total, and with very few exceptions they have been critically and commercially successful. The series has been in hiatus for a short time as there is a finite limit to those Artists with a significant body of work to re-visit.
Enter Alex Lloyd.
It was Alex Lloyd’s solo debut Black the Sun which won a great deal of critical acclaim especially with Triple J listeners who voted it their album of the year. Lloyd also won an ARIA award for “Best New Artist” in 1999 and “Best Male Artist” in 2000.
Lloyd’s second album Watching Angels Mend went double platinum in Australia after its release in 2001. The second single, “Amazing”, proved to be a breakthrough for him, becoming his first top 40 single in Australia, being the top song on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2001. It went on to become a number one hit in New Zealand and the most played track on Australian radio during 2002. Two further top 40 singles in Australia followed in 2002; “Green” and “Everybody’s Laughing”. Lloyd went on to win his second ARIA award for “Best Male Artist” and was nominated in several other categories.
Lloyd’s third album Distant Light was released in 2003. It featured Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey of Midnight Oil on several tracks. It was produced by Stuart Miller, who had also produced Watching Angels Mend and mixed by Tony Hoffer who has worked with Air, Beck and The Temper Trap. Distant Light was also a success on the ARIA charts. Three singles charted from the album; “Coming Home” in August 2003, “1000 Miles” in November 2003, and “Beautiful” in April 2004. The album has been certified platinum in Australia.
In 2006, Alex Lloyd released his greatest hits compilation, titled Amazing: The Best of Alex Lloyd, and his fifth album Good in the Face of a Stranger in November 2008 independently.
In 2011, Alex Lloyd began touring with Steve and Alan Pigram from The Pigram Brothers. The trio had worked on the soundtrack for the Australian film Mad Bastards, and the reviews of the music were largely positive. The trio became known as the Mad Bastards Trio and the music garnered three nominations for the 2011 APRA Awards including Best Original Song Composed for the Screen (“Won’t Look Back” by Alex Lloyd), Best Soundtrack Album and Feature Film Score of the Year. The soundtrack from the film was also nominated for Best Original Film Soundtrack at the 25th ARIA Awards.
After returning to Australia at the end of 2012, Lloyd announced the recording and release of Urban Wilderness and began touring the album early the following year after a five year hiatus.
Now 2016 will see the release of Acoustica – a brilliant re-interpretation of his most celebrated songs including “Coming Home”, “Amazing”, “Black the Sun” and complimented by a stunning version of Leonard Cohens’ “Hallelujah”.
The album will be released in May, but “Coming Home” is being serviced to radio to coincide with a number of east coast shows by Icehouse where Alex will open the night with an exclusive preview of some of these exciting new interpretations.
ICEHOUSE with special guest ALEX LLOYD
Fri Feb 05th – Civic Theatre, Newcastle
Sat Feb 06th – Civic Theatre, Newcastle
Fri Feb 12th – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Sat Feb 13th – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Sat Feb 20th – Palais Theatre, Melbourne
Thu Mar 03rd – Canberra Theatre, ACT
ALEX LLOYD – ACOUSTICA
1 Amazing
2 Easy Exit Station
3 Better the Less You Know
4 Green
5 Coming Home
6 Good Thing
7 Hallelujah
8 Beautiful
9 Brand New Day
10 Black the Sun
11 Never Meant To Fail
12 Everybody’s Laughing
All tour date and ticketing information available at www.icehouse-ivadavies.com
ACOUSTICA album out 5 May 2016 through Liberation Music
