trouser press: madonna, annie lennox and more

- Madonna planning another staged ‘lesbian’ kiss, tour setlist leaked
- solo career of Annie Lennox collected on new album
- Sarah Brightman bags her second Olympic gig 
- new Björk single out in September
- speedy second album for Los Campesinos!
- spacey debut album for Those Dancing Days
- another dose of the blues from Sandy Dillon
- Stacey Earle to release first solo album in 8 years
- Mother Mother announce second album
- news on sixth Sugababes album, special show announced

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Lots of Madonna music news this week ahead of her Sticky & Sweet tour that kicks off in Cardiff on August 23rd. The Sun has published what it claims to be the leaked setlist for the tour, showing that the spectacle will be divided into four parts divided by video interludes, and, at one point, some Romanian folk. We already know that one of these videos features Britney Spears as part of Madge’s bid to get Spears back into a more flattering limelight. Another of the videos, rumoured to be called ‘Get Stupid’, will see her doing her bit for the planet with predictably unsubtle environmental sloganeering. If you’re so inclined, you can see the setlist here. 

According to the Metro, Madonna, who turns 50 on August 16th, is planning a repeat of her onstage ‘lesbian’ kisses with Britney and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, this time with 23-year-old ‘I Kissed A Girl’ singer Katy Perry when the tour comes to London in September. Well, as long as she doesn’t bloody well sing ‘Imagine’ again she can frankly do what she likes.

In other Madge news, it has been hinted that she will return the favour of Timbaland’s production on most recent album Hard Candy with a guest appearance on the sequel to his star-studded album Shock Value, handily titled Shock Value 2. There’s no release date set for this but other names rumoured to be involved include Missy Elliot, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jordin Sparks.

She’s also made the news for attending the premiere ‘I Am Because We Are’, a documentary about the plight of orphans in Malawi on which she acted as producer, at the Traverse City Film Festival in northern Michigan where she holidayed as a child. Fellow Michigan native and festival founder Michael Moore was on hand to let us know that Madonna has “such an incredible heart and such a generous spirit” and that “she does so much out of the glare of the lights to make the world a better place”.

That’s all very well, but is it as good as this? I doubt it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvXGvJXbQPw]

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The first ever compilation of the solo career of Annie Lennox hits the shops on September 15th. Lennox is the most successful female British pop artist of all time, amassing sales of over 78 million albums worldwide and awards from every quarter in her remarkable 26-year career. The Annie Lennox Collection brings together 12 of her singles plus two new songs. “It seems like the time has come to release the Collection this year,” says Annie. “I’m very proud of these songs. They are timeless and have become ‘classics’ in their own right.”

The two new songs are both covers, one of Ash’s ‘Shining Light’, a song Annie says is “so exultant it shimmers”, and the other of Keane B-side ‘Closer Now’, which has been renamed ‘Pattern Of My Life’ with songwriter Tom Chaplin’s blessing.

The Annie Lennox Collection
01 Little Bird
02 Walking On Broken Glass
03 Why
04 No More ‘I Love You’s
05 Precious
06 A Whiter Shade Of Pale
07 A Thousand Beautiful Things
08 Sing
09 Pavement Cracks
10 Love Song For A Vampire
11 Cold
12 Dark Road
13 Pattern Of My Life
14 Shining Light

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Chinese officials may have a hate-on for the woman who spectacularly opened the Olympics in Athens four years ago but they haven’t turned their backs on international stars altogether. British pop-classical performer Sarah Brightman has been announced as one half of the team bringing us the official song of the Beijing Olympics during the opening ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium on Friday, joining Chinese pop singer Liu Huan in singing a song so secret we don’t even know what it’s called. It will be Sarah’s second Olympic performance, having opened the 1992 games in Barcelona in a duet with Spanish tenor José Carreras. On her website, Sarah said the invite was “a tremendous honour”. Her most recent album, Symphony, was released in January.

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Speaking of Björk, the Icelandic wonder is putting out another limited edition (10,000 copies) deluxe single package on September 29th, the fifth to be lifted from her last year’s colourful Volta. Like its predecessors, the moody ‘Dull Flame Of Desire’, a duet with Antony Hegarty, will be made available as a collection of two 12″ vinyl’s, a CD and a DVD featuring the as-yet-unseen promo made by a trio of directors chosen by Björk from the entries to last year’s video competition for ‘Innocence’. A pair of white-label 12″s will also be released. Remixes of the title track come from Modeselektor and Mark Stent, while Sinden contribute a remix of ‘Innocence’. Full track details for each format here. 

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Welsh funsters Los Campesinos! have unexpectedly announced that they are to release a brand new album just 8 months after their debut Hold On Now, Youngster… hit the shops. Pre-empting the skeptics, the band have reassured fans that the new release isn’t a cash-in stuffed with odds and ends leftover from the first album but a collection of ten all-new songs recorded in Seattle over 12 days in June. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed is out on October 13th.

Tracklist:
01 Ways To Make It Through The Wall
02 Miserabilia
03 We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
04 Between An Erupting Earth & An Exploding Sky
05 You’ll Need Those Fingers For Crossing
06 It’s Never That Easy Though, Is It? (Song For The Other Kurt)
07 The End Of The Asterisk
08 Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1
09 Heart Swells / Pacific Daylight Time
10 All Your Kayfabe Friends *

* a quick search of Wikipedia reveals that ‘kayfabe’ is the pig-Latin transformation of ‘fake’. 

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Excitable ladies Those Dancing Days release their hotly anticipated debut album, In Our Space Suits, on October 6th. Recorded in their native Sweden, the 12-track album features the previous singles ‘Hitten’, ‘Run, Run’ and ‘Those Dancing Days’ and will be preceded by another single, ‘Home Sweet Home’, on September 29th.

As part of a short UK tour, the band are playing the Underage Festival in London’s Victoria Park on Friday alongside Florence & The Machine, Poppy & The Jezebels, Sons & Daughters, Operator Please!, Polly Scattergood and many others. No adults allowed (that means anyone aged 19 or over!).

In Our Space Suits
01 Intro
02 Falling In Fall
03 I Know Where You Live
04 Run, Run
05 Hitten
06 Actionman
07 Shuffle
08 Home Sweet Home
09 Duet Under Water
10 Kids
11 Those Dancing Days
12 Space Hero Suits

‘Hitten’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILuNZYmAs5o]

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Things have gotten decidedly more bluesy around here with the impending release of the new Sandy Dillon album, Living In Dreams, on September 15th. Co-credited to her bandmates Ray Majors and David Coulton, it’s her first album for German label Tradition & Moderne after four releases on One Little Indian and features an intriguing mix of covers and originals.

Kicking off with Memphis Minnie’s ‘Can’t Afford To Lose My Man’, Sandy puts her uniquely intense, gravelly spin on the classic ‘Bad Luck Blues’, Brownie McGhee’s ‘Sporting Life Blues’, Duke Ellington’s ‘Chocolate Shake’ and ‘High-Flying Bird’, made famous by ‘60s songstress Judy Henske and later by Grace Slick & Jefferson Airplane. The originals like ‘Graves’, ‘Goin’ Down Hades’, ‘Saliva Gland’ and the title track make for typically compulsive, if sometimes harrowing, listening, drawing on her many experiences both ugly and beautiful. She calls it “survival music” for a reason.

Drop into Sandy’s Night Gallery to hear four tracks from the new album.

Living In Dreams
01 Can’t Afford To Lose My Man
02 Goin’ Down Hades
03 Graves
04 Bad Luck Blues
05 High-Flying Bird
06 Lilly’s Hurt Me Blues
07 Chocolate Shake
08 Saliva Gland
09 Sporting Life Blues
10 Living In Dreams

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It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from Stacey Earle and her husband Mark Stuart, but they’re making up for it this autumn by releasing not one but three new albums: a solo record apiece and one collaborative effort called Love From Stacey & Mark that features acoustic versions of almost everything the couple have ever performed together on stage over the last 16 years. Stacey’s third solo album, Just Along For The Ride, is out in September and is her first since 2000’s brilliant Dancin’ With Them That Brung Me. Mark’s solo album, Left Of Nashville, is available now. All three albums will be available through the online shop of their independent label Gearle Records, which celebrates its tenth birthday this year. In October, Stacey and Mark will embark on their first European tour in 3 years. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU-fMYmTrwk]

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Mother Mother release their second album, O My Heart, through Last Gang Records on September 16th in their native Canada. Speaking to ChartAttack, the band’s Ryan Guldemond (brother of co-vocalist Molly) said that the overall feel of the album is “vastly different” to its predecessor Touch Up, and contains a fair few maternal references. It’s even being released on the Guldemond matriarch’s birthday. You can hear three of the songs, including the title track, on the band’s Myspace. 

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Sugababes are to play a special gig on October 2nd as part of a series of shows organised by Mean Fiddler and Q Magazine in advance of this year’s Q Awards on October 6th. Other acts confirmed for the shows so far include Razorlight and Keane. Tickets go on sale here from September 1st at £25 a head. 

Earlier this week songwriter Jason Pebworth (most famous for being the singer from Orson) told the Daily Star that the Sugababes’ upcoming sixth album would take them “in a much funkier direction”. The as-yet-untitled album is expected to hit the shops in October, just 12 months after their last pop opus. The ‘babes will most likely air some of their new material at V2008.

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Alan Pedder

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, annie lennox, antony hegarty, ash, beijing olympics, beyoncé, bjork, britney spears, christina aguilera, jordin sparks, katy perry, keane, liu huan, los campesinos!, madonna, mark stuart, michael moore, missy elliot, modeselektor, mother mother, news, q awards, rihanna, sandy dillon, sarah brightman, stacey earle, sugababes, those dancing days, timbaland, tom chaplin, underage festival

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