AVAILABLE NOW: Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

(Roadrunner Records)

Multi-talented songstress Amanda Palmer is set to release her first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer on Roadrunner Records on September 16th. One half of the creative force behind The Dresden Dolls, Amanda has amassed mountains of critical acclaim touring the world as vocalist, keyboardist and songwriter for her band. By experimenting with broader musical stylings on Who Killed Amanda Palmer, Amanda showcases endless creativity, exposing herself as a woman whose artistic endeavors have no boundaries.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer began as a minimal affair: Amanda decided to record a solo album for piano and voice, made in her bedroom, finished in a week. During a chance meeting with Ben Folds in Australia, the two bonded over mutual loves and suddenly the record was moved out of the bedroom and into Folds’ Nashville-based, piano-filled recording studio. With Ben Folds acting as producer, the songs on Who Killed Amanda Palmer (a name initially meant as a Twin Peaks reference that has since come to take on new meanings for Amanda) began to come alive, resulting in what is some of the best recorded work of her multi-faceted career.

Mixing the magical and the macabre, the mundane and the sentimental, Who Killed Amanda Palmer is a musical tour de force, the culmination of nearly ten years’ worth of songwriting. Some songs on the album pop and twist with the intensity of their own subject matter while others are soft and intimate, revealing sides of Amanda not usually seen within her work in The Dresden Dolls. Featuring guest turns from the likes of The Dead Kennedys’ East Bay Ray (on “Guitar Hero”), St. Vincent’s Annie Clark (on a warped take on Carousel’s “What’s the Use of Wondrin”), cellist Zoe Keating, and string arrangements by master composer Paul Buckmaster, Who Killed Amanda Palmer gives Amanda’s compositions new color via expansive instrumentation and glorious arrangements.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer will feature liner notes written by celebrated graphic novelist Neil Gaimen, with whom Amanda will be collaborating on a photography book in tandem with the album’s release. Amanda is set to embark on a tour in support of the album this fall.

The tracklisting for Who Killed Amanda Palmer is as follows:

1. Astronaut

2. Runs in the Family

3. Ampersand

4. Leeds United

5. Blake Says

6. Strength Through Music

7. Guitar Hero

8. Have to Drive

9. What’s the Use of Wondrin

10. Melissa Mahoney

11. The Point of It All

12. Another Year

~ by insomniacafe on September 16, 2008.