Artificial Heart
Artificial Heart | ||
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Artist: | Jonathan Coulton | |
Tracks: | 18 | |
Release date: | September 2, 2011 |
Artificial Heart is Jonathan Coulton's eighth studio album. The CD packaging and related merchandise were designed by graphic designer Sam Potts.
History
In 2010, Coulton announced that his long hiatus from recording new material was coming to an end. His new album, titled Artificial Heart after one of the album tracks, was produced by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. Flansburgh helped to push Coulton outside his comfort zone, and as a result Artificial Heart features many firsts. Not only is it the first Coulton album to be produced by someone else, it's the first to be recorded in an "actual studio" (owned by They Might Be Giant's long time producer, Patrick Dillett, who gets an engineering credit), and the first to be written for (and recorded by) a full band.
The album was recorded between September 2010 and June 2011, and released in August 2011. Coulton began performing live versions of some tracks in July 2010, often with his new band.
Track Listing
- Sticking It To Myself
- Artificial Heart
- Nemeses
- The World Belongs to You
- Today With Your Wife
- Sucker Punch
- Glasses
- Je Suis Rick Springfield
- Alone at Home
- Fraud
- Good Morning Tucson
- Now I Am An Arsonist
- Down Today
- Dissolve
- Nobody Loves You Like Me
- Still Alive
- Want You Gone
- The Stache
Credits
- Jonathan Coulton - Guitar/Vocals/Ukulele/other things
- Chris Anderson - Electric Bass
- Marty Beller - Drums
- Produced by John Flansburgh
- Engineered and mixed by Patrick Dillett
- Assistant engineer Joe Altshuler
- Mastered by UE Nastasi at Sterling Sound
Additional Musicians
- Dan Miller - Guitars/Piano
- Dan Levine - Trombones and horn arrangements on Today With Your Wife
- Mauro Refosco - Percussion
- Jon Graboff - Mandolin
- Joe McGinty - Keyboards
- Jon Spurney - Keyboards/Piano
- Dorit Chrysler - Theremin on Still Alive
- Suzanne Vega - Vocals on Now I Am An Arsonist
- Sara Quin - Vocals on Still Alive
- John Roderick - Vocals on Nemeses
- Stan Harrison - Sax arrangement and performance on Sticking It To Myself
- Smokey Hormel - Guitars
- John Flansburgh - Sequencing/Drum Programming/Handclaps
- Hal Cragin - Bass
Availability
Artificial CDs were first made available to the public at PAX Prime 2011, but the official release party is September 2, 2011, at a show in Atlanta. Online pre-orders and digital downloads of the album are available from his website as of August 30, 2011.
In addition to the album itself, the pre-order page offers several merchandise packages featuring t-shirts, posters, USB keys and other extras. The ordering experience features graphics and copy text to match the album's theme, and likely designed by Sam Potts.
References
- Coulton announces the new record on his blog
- Flansburgh leaks the title of the new album in an interview with Music Remedy
- TMBG announces Flansburgh's involvement and many of the guest performers on the TMBG blog
- Coulton teases a "premium superfan pack" version of the album on his blog
Artificial Heart |