Powderfinger have released their first studio album since breaking up a decade ago, ‘Unreleased 1998-2010’.
As the title indicates, the 10-track release collates songs recorded between 1998 and 2010 that “for one reason or another just didn’t make the cut at the time, or just didn’t suit the purposes of whatever we were doing,” according to guitarist Darren Middleton.
The material was reportedly whittled down to 10 from 50 songs, found while compiling material for a 20th anniversary edition of their 2000 classic ‘Odyssey Number Five’. Longtime producer Nick DiDia remastered all 10 songs.
Frontman Bernard Fanning briefly addressed the band’s return on social media today, writing that they were “so happy to bring you guys something to snack on over summer after the weirdest year since…….ever”.
Listen to the album below:
Hi People.
Today marks the release of Powderfinger’s 8th studio album and first one in 11 years. Unreleased is a collection of songs from 1998-2010. We are so happy to bring you guys something to snack on over summer after the weirdest year since…….ever. Enjoy, BF x x pic.twitter.com/kRWTzLlUML— Bernard Fanning (@bernardfanning) November 26, 2020
A new band t-shirt provides more information about which era each song on the album belongs to. The bulk of the material belongs to the sessions around the band’s 2009 final studio album, ‘Golden Rule’ – ‘Happy’, ‘Daybreak’, ‘Wrecking Ball’, ‘Diamond Ring’ and ‘What Are You Waiting For’ were all recorded then.
The ‘Vulture Street’ (2003) and ‘Dream Days at the Hotel Existence’ (2006-7) eras get two songs respectively: ‘Day By Day’ and ‘Lou Doimand’ from the former, ‘Say It So I Know’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Be Your Problem’ from the latter.
Only one song from the ‘Internationalist’ era (1998) makes it on: ‘Rule of Thumb’.
This year has marked renewed activity from Powderfinger, beginning with a special ‘One Night Lonely’ performance in May where they raised over $450,000 for various mental health charities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.