The Moshville Times - Bruce Dickinson announces More Balls To Picasso, out July 25th

In 1994, having left Iron Maiden for a time (he reed in 1999), Bruce Dickinson released his second solo album, entitled Balls To Picasso. Named in honour of the cubist pioneer whose representations of spherical objects were as squares, and reflected on the cover in graffiti style on a tiled bathroom wall, the album belied its irreverent title by solidifying Dickinson’s reputation as serious solo artist.

His first record with collaborator Roy Z, and recorded with Z’s band Tribe Of Gypsies, it went through various iterations before its release, produced by Shay Baby. The original album included a number of classic tracks and live favourites from Dickinson including the singles ‘Tears Of The Dragon’ and ‘Shoot All The Clowns’, alongside the much-loved epic ‘Laughing In The Hiding Bush’, which was the original title for the album.

Yet despite its positive reception at the time, it never quite captured Dickinson’s original vision which was even more expansive in scope and ambition. However, with the ability to revisit his solo catalogue – and following on from Dickinson’s hugely acclaimed album The Mandrake Project in 2024 [review here] – the brand new part re-recorded, remixed and newly mastered version of the album, now entitled More Balls To Picasso, reimagines it as a fresh and contemporary release; a roaringly full-throttle and ambitious collection of supremely crafted and realised songs.

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Dickinson says of it, “While mixing all my catalogue into Dolby Atmos I had a nagging desire to revisit and reinvent the record. So putting more balls into ‘Balls…’ was a labour of love. Of course, we beefed up the guitars – courtesy of our ‘Swedish shredder’ Philip Naslund and we added some really beautiful work by Adassi Addasi on ‘Tears…’ as well. Fellow Brazilian composer Antonio Teoli added some stunning orchestral arrangements, and in a unique contribution, added indigenous instruments from the Amazon (recorded by himself when he lived there!) at the beginning of ‘Gods Of War’.

“‘Shoot All The Clowns’ gets the benefit of a horn section fronted by the Berklee College of Music, and all of the record gets the benefit of the mix by Brendan Duffey, (who worked on The Mandrake Project), with notes along the way from Shay Baby, the original father of the album”.

Additionally, More Balls To Picasso includes two previously unreleased live in-the-studio tracks, ‘Gods of War’ and ‘Shoot All the Clowns’. It will be available as a splatter vinyl double album and tri- digisleeve CD album.

Tracklisting