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Track List
01) ALPHABETLAND
02) Free
03) Water & Wine
04) Strange Life
05) I Gotta Fever
06) Delta 88 Nightmare
07) Star Chambered
08) Angel on the Road
09) Cyrano de Berger's Back
10) Goodbye Year, Goodbye
11) All the Time in the World
01) ALPHABETLAND
02) Free
03) Water & Wine
04) Strange Life
05) I Gotta Fever
06) Delta 88 Nightmare
07) Star Chambered
08) Angel on the Road
09) Cyrano de Berger's Back
10) Goodbye Year, Goodbye
11) All the Time in the World
2:58
2:14
2:39
2:34
2:27
1:37
2:17
2:49
3:04
2:16
2:05
Data Complete
50%
Total Rating
50%Total Rating
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First Released
2020
Punk Rock
Gritty
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Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
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Alphabetland is the eighth studio album by American punk rock band X. Released digitally in April 2020, it is their first studio release in 27 years and the first with their original line-up in the past 35 years. X released the album with no prior announcement to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their debut album Los Angeles and credited songwriting to all four members for the first time in their career. The release has received positive reviews from critics.
The songs on Alphabetland were written in the 18 months leading up to release, except for "Delta 88 Nightmare" which dates back to the late 1970s (a demo track of it was previously released on the 1997 anthology Beyond and Back: The X Anthology and the 2001 reissue of Los Angeles), and "Cyrano De Berger's Back", which bassist John Doe wrote in the late seventies, and which was originally released by The Flesh Eaters on their 1981 album A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die. Additionally, “I Gotta Fever” is a re-write of the 1981 song “Heater”. "Cyrano" was also recorded by X on the first post-Billy Zoom album, See How We Are but the band members were always unhappy with the recording and preferred this version with Zoom's saxophone. The original line-up of X had been a touring act for several years but only decided to re-enter the studio with new music after the crowdfunded album Live in South America proved economically viable and they got back the rights to their original albums from Warner Bros. Records.
Commenting on the long break between new material, Doe explained that with a sufficient body of work, X had enough fun touring and there was little motivation for new music. The Alphabetland was recorded across several sessions in 2019 and 2020 with producer Rob Schnapf, who has previously worked with Elliott Smith, Beck, and Joyce Manor. He was someone whom Zoom knew and liked as a collaborator and former neighbor. The initial recording sessions were in January 2019 with no plans to release any material and the band followed this with a single and tour that encouraged them to return in early 2020. Even though the beginning of the songwriting date from April 2019, when the only songwriters were vocalist Exene Cervenka and Doe, all tracks are credited to all four members of X and the recording sessions coincided with the individual musicians improving their relationships with one another as the other members added to the arrangements. Doe estimates that he and Cervenka are responsible for 70% of the composition but wanted to recognize the contributions of the other musicians and for unity, they agreed to split songwriting. The band had previously released a single recorded during these sessions—"Delta 88 Nightmare"/"Cyrano DeBerger's Back"—and a music video for the A-side but did not announce any intentions on further releases. In January 2019, the band revealed that they had entered the studio to record for the first time since 1985, but at the time did not say whether or not the recordings would be released as an album. The band finished recording by February, got together for photos and final mixing on March 12, and shipped off the album for mastering, which wrapped on April 10.
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Available in:
Alphabetland is the eighth studio album by American punk rock band X. Released digitally in April 2020, it is their first studio release in 27 years and the first with their original line-up in the past 35 years. X released the album with no prior announcement to coincide with the 40th anniversary of their debut album Los Angeles and credited songwriting to all four members for the first time in their career. The release has received positive reviews from critics.
The songs on Alphabetland were written in the 18 months leading up to release, except for "Delta 88 Nightmare" which dates back to the late 1970s (a demo track of it was previously released on the 1997 anthology Beyond and Back: The X Anthology and the 2001 reissue of Los Angeles), and "Cyrano De Berger's Back", which bassist John Doe wrote in the late seventies, and which was originally released by The Flesh Eaters on their 1981 album A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die. Additionally, “I Gotta Fever” is a re-write of the 1981 song “Heater”. "Cyrano" was also recorded by X on the first post-Billy Zoom album, See How We Are but the band members were always unhappy with the recording and preferred this version with Zoom's saxophone. The original line-up of X had been a touring act for several years but only decided to re-enter the studio with new music after the crowdfunded album Live in South America proved economically viable and they got back the rights to their original albums from Warner Bros. Records.
Commenting on the long break between new material, Doe explained that with a sufficient body of work, X had enough fun touring and there was little motivation for new music. The Alphabetland was recorded across several sessions in 2019 and 2020 with producer Rob Schnapf, who has previously worked with Elliott Smith, Beck, and Joyce Manor. He was someone whom Zoom knew and liked as a collaborator and former neighbor. The initial recording sessions were in January 2019 with no plans to release any material and the band followed this with a single and tour that encouraged them to return in early 2020. Even though the beginning of the songwriting date from April 2019, when the only songwriters were vocalist Exene Cervenka and Doe, all tracks are credited to all four members of X and the recording sessions coincided with the individual musicians improving their relationships with one another as the other members added to the arrangements. Doe estimates that he and Cervenka are responsible for 70% of the composition but wanted to recognize the contributions of the other musicians and for unity, they agreed to split songwriting. The band had previously released a single recorded during these sessions—"Delta 88 Nightmare"/"Cyrano DeBerger's Back"—and a music video for the A-side but did not announce any intentions on further releases. In January 2019, the band revealed that they had entered the studio to record for the first time since 1985, but at the time did not say whether or not the recordings would be released as an album. The band finished recording by February, got together for photos and final mixing on March 12, and shipped off the album for mastering, which wrapped on April 10.
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