Simply calling Curtis Harding a soul man feels reductive. Harding's voice conveys pain, pleasure, longing, tenderness, sadness and strength-a full gamut of emotions. Today his voice takes on an optimistic lilt with his his new album, If Words Were Flowers. If Words Were Flowers is Harding's first new music since 2018, a follow up to his critically acclaimed 'Face Your Fears" album. It features songs like " Hopeful", where Harding croons with devotion over a classic soul groove, textured with infectious horn playing, background singers and modern psychedelic flourishes. Harding fuels his psychedelic sound with the essence of Soul but isn't bound by it. Instead, his songs convey an eclectic blend of genres leaping from the many musical lives he has lived from following his evangelical Gospel-singing mother on tour around the country as a child to rapping in Atlanta, forming a garage band with The Black Lips' Cole Alexander to singing back-up for Cee Lo Green. Through these experiences he fully embraces life's darkest intricacies and conjures dynamic, addictive melodies.
Paul McCartney must not only have been conscious of his slipping commercial fortunes, he must have realized that his records hadn't been treated seriously for years, so he decided to make a full-fledged comeback effort with Flowers in the Dirt…
Flowers is the third studio album of American girl group The Emotions released in June 1976 by Columbia Records. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard Top R&B albums chart. Flowers has also been certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.
Neil Young embarked on a 2019 European tour with Promise of the Real only two weeks after the passing of Elliot Roberts, his life-long friend and manager. Young viewed this tour as a living tribute to Roberts, claiming in the liner notes to Noise & Flowers – a 2022 document of the 2019 trek – that "Playing in his memory (made it) one of the most special tours ever. We hit the road and took his great spirit with us into every song." Noise & Flowers does indeed have a unique vibe, one that's far removed from the weird, fevered protest of Earth, the previous live album Young recorded with Promise of the Real. Here, he amiably wanders through his back pages, selecting a few standards ("Mr. Soul," "Everybody Know This Is Nowhere," "Helpless," "Rockin' in the Free World") but spending more time playing songs that don't always make their way onto set lists.
Produced by No-Man, Flowers At The Scene is a vibrant collection of 11 strikingly diverse songs. Against a backdrop of propulsive Art Rock, heartbreaking ballads and more, Tim Bowness distinctively delivers cinematic storytelling and disarmingly direct confessional lyrics on his strongest solo album to date. Representing the duo of Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson’s first joint production in over a decade, the album features stunning performances from an extraordinary cast of players including Peter Hammill, Andy Partridge (XTC), Kevin Godley (10cc), Colin Edwin, Jim Matheos (Fates Warning/OSI), David Longdon (Big Big Train), co-producer Brian Hulse (Plenty), Australian trumpeter Ian Dixon, and drummers Tom Atherton and Dylan Howe. The Curator, David K Jones, violinist Fran Broady and Charles Grimsdale also guest.
On 10 October 1980, a young Australian band called Flowers released their debut album. Led by the singing, songwriting and multi-instrumental talents of Iva Davies, the band had been constantly touring Australia over the prior 3 years building a substantial live following which helped drive their debut single, Can't Help Myself, to masses of airplay and sales. To celebrate this 40 year milestone, Icehouse performed the songs from the album, and some very special cover versions which marked the band's beginnings, earlier this year at a 40th anniversary event at St Kilda Festival in Melbourne (which was also celebrating its 40 years). That sold out, dual anniversary performance is set to be released documenting the timeless thrill the music continues to bring, with Icehouse Plays Flowers.