Electric Landlady

Description

Wit, liveliness and crackling musical ideas, jumping between global genres with relish – Kirsty MacColl’s third album, ‘Electric Landlady’, has all of them. It also has quite the title, as her friend and occasional songwriting partner Johnny Marr writes over e-mail. ‘We spent a lot of time together [then] hanging out, listening to records late at night and then making our own records during marathon recording sessions. I lived in her flat in Shepherds Bush which is how we came up with ‘Electric Landlady”. Travelling the world with her husband, producer Steve Lillywhite, had given her exposure to big bands like the Rolling Stones and Talking Heads, with whom she gladly sang backing vocals. But her friends and voracious appetite for new music is what drove her creativity. ‘Electric Landlady’ also saw the love of Cuban and Latin American rhythms in her life, which had been fired in her childhood by her brother’s record collection. World-renowned artists like percussionist José Mangual Jr, trumpeter Angel Hernandez, timbalero Mark Quinones and bassist Sal Cuevas joined her band, enhancing and enriching her glorious songs with a tropical, sunshine register. Many collaborations light up this LP. The defiant country swing of ‘All I Ever Wanted’ was a result of a writing partnership by post, exchanging tapes with American musician Marshall Crenshaw. ‘He Never Mentioned Love’, written with The Pogues’ Jem Finer, is a more mature, wry take on Kirsty’s earlier girl groupflavoured pop. ‘The Hardest Word’, written with her older brother Hamish, is also about their late father, the renowned folk singer Ewan, with whom she had a tough relationship. This double CD deluxe edition features a bonus disc of alternate mixes, B-sides and singles.

Tracklisting

Disc 1
1. Waking Down Madison – Kirsty MacColl
2. All I Ever Wanted – Kirsty MacColl
3. Children of the Revolution – Kirsty MacColl
4. Halloween – Kirsty MacColl
5. My Affair – Kirsty MacColl
6. Lying Down – Kirsty MacColl
7. He Never Mentioned Love – Kirsty MacColl
8. We’ll Never Pass This Way Again – Kirsty MacColl
9. The Hardest Word – Kirsty MacColl
10. Maybe It’s Imaginary – Kirsty MacColl
11. My Way Home – Kirsty MacColl
12. The One and Only – Kirsty MacColl
Disc 2
1. One Good Thing (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
2. The Hardest Word (Alt. Take 3) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
3. Walking Down Madison (6AM Ambient Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
4. Walking Down Madison (7″ Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
5. Walking Down Madison (Extended Urban Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
6. Walking Down Madison (Ye Olde Originale Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
7. Walking Down Madison (Club Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
8. Walking Down Madison (Urban Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
9. Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby (Feat. Billy Bragg) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
10. All the Tears That I Cried (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
11. My Affair (Ladbroke Groove Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
12. My Affair (Bass Sexy Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
13. My Affair (Olive Groove Mix) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
14. My Affair (Single Edit) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
15. Don’t Go Near the Water (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl
16. All I Ever Wanted (Re-recorded Single Version) (Bonus Track) – Kirsty MacColl