Artificial Heart (album)

Artificial Heart is the eighth studio album by rock musician Jonathan Coulton. After taking a long hiatus from songwriting after his successful 2006 Thing a Week project (with the exceptions of "Still Alive" and ten songs recorded between 2007 and 2009), Coulton started production on Artificial Heart after encouragement from John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants), also the album's producer. Unlike much of Coulton's previous work, Artificial Heart's original lyricism is largely non-comedic and contains few references to geek culture overall, instead opting for heavy themes of betrayal, commitment, abandonment, and surrender.[2]

Artificial Heart
Studio album by
Jonathan Coulton
ReleasedSeptember 2, 2011 (digital), November 8, 2011 (CD)
RecordedSeptember 2010 - June 2011
GenreFolk rock, alternative rock, indie folk[1]
LabelJocoserious Records
ProducerJohn Flansburgh
Jonathan Coulton chronology
The Aftermath
(2009)		 Artificial Heart
(2011)		 Solid State
(2017)

History

The album began production after Coulton opened a few shows for They Might Be Giants in 2010. Sometime during these shows, Flansburgh suggested to Coulton that he put together a band and record an album professionally, to be produced by Flansburgh. In 2010, Coulton announced that he was about to start recording his first album in four years.[3]

Artificial Heart is a collaboration between Coulton and John Flansburgh, who encouraged Coulton to step outside the independent realm of his previous work and try many new things for the album, including recording with a full band in a professional studio. Thus, Artificial Heart is the first Coulton album to be produced by someone other than Coulton himself, the first to be recorded in a studio (owned by Flansburgh's collaborator Patrick Dillett), and the first to be written for (and recorded by) a full band. Artificial Heart is also the first Coulton album to feature guest lead vocals and a duet.

Artificial Heart has become Coulton's first album to chart, placing #1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums, #26 on Billboard's Rock Albums, #16 on Billboard's Alternative Albums, and #125 on the Billboard 200.[4]

Track listing
No.TitleLead Vocal(s)Length
1."Sticking It to Myself"Jonathan Coulton2:19
2."Artificial Heart"Jonathan Coulton2:33
3."Nemeses"John Roderick3:01
4."The World Belongs to You"Jonathan Coulton2:11
5."Today with Your Wife"Jonathan Coulton2:57
6."Sucker Punch"Jonathan Coulton1:42
7."Glasses"Jonathan Coulton2:47
8."Je Suis Rick Springfield"Jonathan Coulton2:28
9."Alone at Home"Jonathan Coulton2:02
10."Fraud"Jonathan Coulton3:00
11."Good Morning Tucson"Jonathan Coulton2:27
12."Now I Am an Arsonist"Jonathan Coulton, Suzanne Vega2:53
13."Down Today"Jonathan Coulton2:22
14."Dissolve"Jonathan Coulton2:58
15."Nobody Loves You Like Me"Jonathan Coulton2:19
16."Still Alive"Sara Quin4:15
17."Want You Gone"Jonathan Coulton2:22
18."The Stache"Jonathan Coulton3:00

Personnel

Availability

The album was released on September 2, 2011. The initial release is available as part of a "premium superfan pack" with extra merchandise, including a vinyl pressing and T-shirts, designed by Sam Potts.[5]

The first track to be released from the album, Nemeses, was released online via Paste Magazine on July 28, 2011.[6][7]

gollark: What claims?
gollark: Time to update completions in potatOS somehow, then.
gollark: https://pastebin.com/NdUKJ07j
gollark: The potatOS privacy policy and license information has now been updated.
gollark: I think GPS could be patched to randomly generate a reply channel on each request without problems, although rednet couldn't do a similar thing.

References
  1. http://www.allmusic.com/album/artificial-heart-mw0002231981
  2. http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/Interpretation_of_the_Diagnostic_Metrics
  3. "OK, So It's a New Record". JonathanCoulton.com. 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  4. "Jonathan Coulton is on Fire (But Only Figuratively)". Wired.com. 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2011-12-29.
  5. "Many JoCo News Items". JonathanCoulton.com. 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  6. "Song Premiere: Jonathan Coulton - 'Nemeses'". Paste Magazine. 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  7. "First Track from Artificial Heart". JonathanCoulton.com. 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.