Shellac have just released their final album âTo All Trainsâ, nine days after the bandâs lead guitarist Steve Albini passed away.
The legendary record producer, or audio engineer as he preferred to be described, was the mastermind behind iconic albums such as Nirvanaâs âIn Uteroâ, Pixiesâ âSurfer Rosaâ and Manic Street Preachersâ âJournal For Plague Loversâ. He died on May 8 of a heart attack while at Electronic Audio, his recording studio in Chicago.
He also had a highly influential and accomplished recording career, notably as part of the bands Big Black (1981-1987) and Shellac, a noise rock and hardcore band that had been together since 1992.
Their new album is their first in 10 years, and was first announced in March. It follows on from 2014âs âDude Incredibleâ, and was recorded in four blocks, each spaced several years apart, between November 2017 and March 2022.
Listen to the album below:
The tracklist for Shellacâs âTo All Trainsâ is:
- âWSODâ
- âGirl From Outsideâ
- âChick New Waveâ
- âTattoosâ
- âWednesdayâ
- âScrappersâ
- âDays Are Dogsâ
- âHow I Wrote How I Wrote Elastic Man (cock & bull)â
- âScabby The Ratâ
- âI Donât Fear Hellâ
A number of major figures in music have paid tribute to Albini since his death.
âTonight Iâd like to dedicate this song to a friend that we lost the other day, who Iâve known a long, long time,â Foos frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd. âHe left us much too soon. Heâs touched all of your lives, Iâm sure. Iâm talking about Steve Albini. For those of you who know, you know. For those of you who donât know, just remember that name: Steve Albini. Letâs sing this one for him.â
Elsewhere, Yourcodenameis:milo spoke to NME about how the 20th anniversary of their LP âAll Roads To Faultâ was made all the more profound by the passing of Albini, who engineered the album.
Remembering their time with the punk and production legend, Lockey said: âWe paid attention, saw everything he did, asked questions that he would gladly spend ages answeringâ.
âHe once stopped the session and proceeded to give us a lecture on how the peanut built America. He schooled us in billiards, then showed us his favourite cooking shows that heâd recorded. It was all so natural and encouraging, we could do what the fuck we wanted and heâd capture it. Thatâs the deal, and we fucking loved it.â
Comparing their experience to other bands who had told them that recording debut albums came with âre-recording with different producers, loads of different mixers, A&R bods cutting different versions, edits â all that shitâ, Lockey said that the making of âAll Roads To Faultâ was anything but a chore.
âWe had absolutely none of that, just a week in a studio with the dude who made our favourite records steering the ship in the most hands-off but confident way imaginable,â he said. âWeâd had the experience we wanted and what would eventually set us up to be the best band we could be.â
Jarvis Cocker has also recalled the impact that working with Albini during âFurther Complicationsâ had on him, and The Cribs shared their fond memories of the icon.
PJ Harvey also said he âchanged the course of my lifeâ during sessions for her 1993 LP âRid Of Meâ., and Joanna Newsom dedicated a version of her song âCosmiaâ to him, who engineered her 2006 album âYsâ. See further tributes here.