LISTEN: New Bill Wells & Friends Album | The Quietus

LISTEN: New Bill Wells & Friends Album

Album made up of Wells and guests performing a number of familiar nursery rhymes; listen to it in full below

This Friday sees the release of a new album from Bill Wells in collaboration with an extensive list of friends and above we are offering you a chance to have a first listen of the album ahead of its release.

Nursery Rhymes is exactly what one might expect from the title, an album made up of various recognisable nursery rhymes as performed by Wells and a number of familiar faces taking in guest appearances from Yo La Tengo, Annette Peacock, Karen Mantler, Norman Blake and many more on ‘Three Blind Mice’, ‘Humpty Dumpty’ and other familiar tunes. “If people thought it was a bit strange, then they didn’t say,” says Wells of the assembled cast of guests on the album. “I made it all clear pretty early on in proceedings and everyone seemed up for it.

“They should be quite disturbing,“ he says of the tracks on the album. “Because ultimately part of the remit of a nursery rhyme was to give your child some of the harsh realties of life, while sugar-coating them with a catchy little melody. But I’m losing that coating and going straight to the nub of the thing.” The album is out, via Karaoke Kalk, this Friday (November 20). You can pre-order it here.

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