Mick Harvey – When We Were Beautiful & Young: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Mick Harvey has announced details of his first solo album in over 10 years, Five Ways to Say Goodbye, the final release in a series of releases that feature a blend of originals and interpretations of pre-existing songs.

Here’s the blurb with more:

The new 12-track collection, out on Mute on 10 May 2024, will include original compositions alongside tracks written by artists as varied as Ed Kuepper (co-founder of The Saints), Fatal Shore (Phil Shoenfelt and Bruno Adams), David McComb (The Triffids / Blackeyed Susans), Lo Carmen and Lee Hazelwood.

Listen to ‘When We Were Beautiful & Young’ – Harvey’s tender, reflective, and deeply poignant exploration of youth – and watch the accompanying video, a journey through highlights of a career that began nearly 50 years ago in Melbourne.

Across the album, Harvey creates a coherent mood between other people’s songs and his own, as though they are all part of the same lineage and interconnected sonic world. As such, these re-workings go far beyond functioning as simple cover versions. “I don’t think cover is appropriate terminology,” says Harvey. “It’s not a copy. To my mind it’s more in the traditional of how songs used to be, where they would mutate and you’d end up with lots of different versions.One is really just passing the music on and sharing the songs further.”

The album features ‘A Suitcase in Berlin’ – originally released in early 2023 with artwork that nods to the new album – a translation and reworking of Marlene Dietrich’s 1950s ode to Berlin, ‘Ich Hab’ Noch Einen Koffer in Berlin’. Harvey’s updated take on the song, originally written in 1922, brings a sadness and weight to the subject appropriate to the passage of time and the weight of history which hangs over the city.

“(The album) is kind of about farewells or saying goodbye,” explains Harvey, “There’s a lot around that subject so it’s got a kind of melancholy and sentimentality around it.” The theme is multifaceted: the album may be the closing chapter on a five-part series of albums that began in 2005 with One Man’s Treasure, and continued with Two of Diamonds, Three Sisters – Live At Bush Hall, and Four (Acts of Love). It’s a reflection of time passed and life elapsed, and it’s also a literal goodbye in some instances. “A lot of the songs are by people who have moved on,” says Harvey.

There are few artists as endlessly versatile as Mick Harvey. From his powerhouse, role-shifting, contributions in the ferocious The Birthday Party, to being a central driving force in Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, via crucial contributions in bands like Crime and the City Solution, Harvey leaves subtle yet indelible fingerprints on every project he touches. This, alongside his countless soundtracks – including ‘Ghosts… of the Civil Dead’ (Dir. John Hillcoat, 1988), ‘Chopper’ (Dir. Andrew Dominik, 2000), and the award-winning soundtracks for ‘Australian Rules’ (Dir. Paul Goldman, 2002) and ‘Suburban Mayhem’ (Dir. Paul Goldman, 2006) – as well as his numerous collaborations and roles as a producer and/or arranger for the likes of PJ Harvey, Anita Lane, Rowland S. Howard and Robert Forster, have given Harvey an unusually prolific and eclectic career.

The new album follows Harvey’s recent collaboration with Mexican artist Amanda Acevedo, who features on Five Ways to Say Goodbye, and will be accompanied by a UK and European tour dates in May and June – full details below.

Mick Harvey’s Five Ways to Say Goodbye is out on vinyl, CD and digitally on 10 May 2024: https://mute.ffm.to/mickharvey-fwtsg 

FIVE WAYS TO SAY GOODBYE TRACKLISTING (CAT # STUMM494)

Heaven’s Gate

We Had an Island

Demolition

The Art of Darkness

Setting You Free

Alone with the Stars

Nashville High

Ghost Ships

Dirtnap Stories – featuring Amanda Acevedo

When We Were Beautiful & Young

A Suitcase in Berlin

Like a Hurricane

MICK HARVEY TOUR

16 May – Valencia (ES), 16 Toneladas

17 May – Barcelona (ES), Sidecar

18 May – Madrid (ES), Sala el Sol

26 May – London (UK), Omeara

29 May – Coimbra (PT), Nereida in Jardim de Sereia (free concert)

30 May – Leiria (PT), Teatro José Lúcio Da Silva

1 June – Espinho (PT), Auditório de Espinho

7 June – Milan (IT), Arci Bellezza

8 June – Brno (CZ), Mersey Gathering

More dates to be added, latest ticket links can be found HERE 

SELECTED SOLO / COLLABORATION DISCOGRAPHY

Intoxicated Man (1995)

Pink Elephants (1997)

One Man’s Treasure (2005)

Two of Diamonds (2007)

Sketches from the Book of the Dead (2011)

Four (Acts of Love) (2013)

Delirium Tremens (2016)

Intoxicated Women (2017)

The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War (with Christopher Richard Barker) (2018)

Phantasmagoria in Blue (with Amanda Acevedo) (2023)

RECENT PRAISE

“Entrancing” 4* – MOJO (Intoxicated Women)

“Delightful” 4* – Uncut (Intoxicated Women)

“a revelation and a joy” – The Guardian (Delirium Tremens)

“Harvey is a cool, calm, plainspoken singer; his true voice has always come through his sense of arrangement, and his ability to render exquisite beauty and apocalyptic clamor with the same brushstroke.” – Pitchfork (Delirium Tremens)

“…there is an energy that comes from the confidence of experience… Harvey makes each song here his own.” – The Quietus (Delirium Tremens)

“an exceptional album from start to finish and one that shows the love its creators have for the music they make” – Louder Than War (Phantasmagoria in Blue)

“stunning” – Sun 13 (Phantasmagoria in Blue)

http://www.mickharvey.com/

www.mute.com