Josh T. Pearson, of Lift To Experience, has announced details of his second solo album, entitled The Straights Hits! Above, you can check out lead track ‘Straight To The Top!’
Though he has been a recording artist for over two decades now, and has been writing songs for around thirty years, The Straight Hits! is only Pearson’s second solo album, following on from 2011’s Last Of The Country Gentlemen as well as 2001’s The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, the album he released as part of Lift To Experience.
"In the last years I learned to dance, take drugs, make love… choose life," says Pearson. "I got rid of the beard, cut my hair and started wearing colour. I burned down all my idols and realised in the process that I needed to burn down my reputation as fast as I could too. I felt constricted by the old stuff and I didn’t like being in a cage. It wasn’t letting me move on."
The album, which saw him pen nine songs in just three days, is described by Pearson as "a departure from years of long-form songwriting with tunes meant to hit straight and to the point. They all had to be direct hits although I don’t know if I got the ‘hits’ part right, but I did think it was funny calling it a ‘hits’ record after releasing only one solo album after a lifetime of playing music."
In writing the album, he set out Five Pillars to guide his process:
1) All songs must have a verse, a chorus and a bridge.
2) The lyrics must run 16 lines or less.
3) They must have the word ‘straight’ in the title.
4) That title must be four words or less.
5) They must submit to song above all else. ("You do as she tells you, whatever the song tells you,’ Pearson explains. ‘You bend to her, and not her to you.").
The Straight Hits! is set for release on Mute on April 13. The album can be pre-ordered here. Josh T. Pearson will bring the album to Leeds, Manchester, London and a number of other UK cities in May. For more details on those shows, click here.
