joe mcalinden

Joe McAlinden had a band called Superstar who were originally signed to Creation Records by Alan McGee in 1992 and, up until 2000, released around six albums. More recently under the moniker ‘_Linden' he recorded two albums under the watchful eye of Edwyn Collins which were released on AED Records (UK) and Slumberland Records (US). As an artist Joe has worked with many people including Teenage Fanclub, Big Star/ Alex Chilton, Rod Stewart, Edwyn Collins, The Boy Hairdressers, BMX Bandits, Matthew Sweet, artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, writer Alan Warner, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, LSO and The Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band. One day it will all make sense. Until then...

[joemcalindenmusic]

Amazing to see the reissue of Superstar’s Palm Tree album enter the Official Scottish Album Chart at No.5.

The deluxe vinyl reissue of Palm Tree is out now on Last Night From Glasgow.

Superstar - Palm Tree 2 x LP

First Released in 1998 Superstar's wonderful LP Palm Tree will now be  repressed in Double Gatefold Format with 6 Bonus Tracks. Expected Rel

[joemcalindenmusic]

Almost 25 years since it’s release, Palm Tree is available on vinyl once again. This time, it’s a double album with bonus tracks and sleeve notes from Scottish novelist Alan Warner.

Original artwork by Glasgow-based artist Jim Lambie.

Available NOW

[joemcalindenmusic]

Superstar Albums Now Streaming

All Superstar albums are finally up on the interweb and available to stream at your leisure on Spotify, Apple Music etc.

It’s taken a while but finally you can listen back to Greatest Hits Volume One, Superstar, 18 Carat, Palm Tree, Phat Dat and Six More Songs at your leisure

If this is something that you've been waiting for years and will change your life immeasurably then here you go...

[joemcalindenmusic]

NEW ALBUM 25/09/2020

EDIT out on all formats inc. ltd edition clear vinyl

BUY NOW

[joemcalindenmusic]

209 OUT NOW 

Video Directed by Richard Heslop Edit by Sam Sharples 2020 

Ex Superstar Joe McAlinden's first solo recording released today, 05/06/2020. ‘209’ is released with a beautiful video from director Richard Heslop who’s credits include Queen, Paul McCartney, The Cure, Smiths and Happy Mondays. It’s the first track taken from Joe's forthcoming solo LP due later this year and was inspired by a beautiful, unfinished book borrowed from a friend...

[joemcalindenmusic]

NEW SINGLE 05/06/20

Ex Superstar Joe McAlinden will release his first solo recording on 05/06/2020. The track ‘209’ is released with an accompanying video from director Richard Heslop who’s credits include Queen, Paul McCartney, The Cure, Smiths and Happy Mondays. ‘209’ is the first track taken from Joe's forthcoming solo LP due later this year and was inspired by a beautiful, unfinished book borrowed from a friend...

‘The book became too close to my reality at the time so I really don’t want to know how it ends. It sits on my bedside table, bookmark in place, sheltering words, gathering dust. The last words I remember reading sit at the top of page 209...

‘This Is A Love Story’’.

[joemcalindenmusic]

SINGLE TRACK STORIES

A short film by Ben Ogunbuyi documenting the relationship between Scottish artists JR Green and Ess Gee about the creative writing and recording process with producer and founder of Single Track Recordings, Joe McAlinden.

[joemcalindenmusic]

BONES

Here is the brand new video for our new single Bones // Broken Glass out on 5th Feb on AED Records and Slumberland Records (US).

Pre-order/buy HERE

The second single from critically acclaimed album Rest And Be Thankful is an old school double A -Broken Glass and brand new track Bones featuring the lo-fi traditional skronk of young upstarts JR Green.

Bones was written one wintery morning at the window of Inver Cottage, an old fisherman’s croft on the shores of Loch Fyne. In December 2015 we went to The Barne Studio in Duntocher with the wonderful JR Green - rehearsed, recorded and mixed the track on the same day. . . old skool! The day was beautifully captured by film-maker and Young Bafta winner Iain Henderson.

[joemcalindenmusic]

New year // New single // Watch // This // Space.

[joemcalindenmusic]

Best Art Vinyl 2015

Rest And Be Thankful has been shortlisted and we need your vote...

On November 2nd 2015 Art Vinyl launches ‘Best Art Vinyl 2015’, its search for the most creative and well-designed record cover of the year, joining an archive of stunning designs from the past ten years. A diverse shortlist of 50 striking record covers, including Dave Gilmour Rattle that Lock, Linden - Rest and Be Thankful, Squeeze – Cradle to the Grave, Leftfield - Alternative Light Source and Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly will be nominated for the award and the public will be invited to vote online or in person for their favourites which will ultimately decide the winner. To mark its 10th year, the Best Art Vinyl 2015 nominations were chosen by a panel of highly respected music industry design experts and previous winners, creating an experts’ eye collection of sleeve art. The award will be accompanied by the launch of exhibitions across Europe, notably Hungary, Germany, Scotland and England with final winners revealed at Belgraves Hotel in Belgravia. Last year, Best Art Vinyl 2014 reached over 16,000 participating voters in the annual award which celebrates the best in art, photography and graphic design in modern music culture. The public’s favourite cover of 2014 was Dan Hillier’s ‘Falls’ for Brighton Rock Duo, Royal Blood’s eponymous album. Previous winners also include Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’ from regular Radiohead artist, Stanley Donwood and work from the sixteenth century for The Fleet Foxes eponymous LP by Dutch artist, Pieter Bruegel Best Art Vinyl founder, Andrew Heeps explains; “While the vinyl revival has quietly gained momentum, Art Vinyl has become the home and archivist for contemporary sleeve design, achieving our mission to document the art of this amazing music format right up to the present date. I founded Art Vinyl back in 2004 as I believed that a new generation would still appreciate this format and the added artistic value from the sleeve designs. That generation has now famously been labelled ‘Hipsters’ but at the end of the day it is the original vinyl record designs that shine, this annual celebration however is most certainly both genreless and ageless. With so many amazing sleeve designers, these exhibitions will hopefully inspire and bring prominence to many new artists and designers, those unsung heroes of the music industry. The Best Art Vinyl 2015 Award is now the music industry’s recognised award for art and design which ironically celebrates a format that had been long forgotten by the major record labels until recently.” As highlighted by Andy Linehan, Curator of Popular Music at the British Library, commenting on Best Art Vinyl in 2012, sleeve art has become one of the primary motives behind the appeal of vinyl records; “In addition to the quality of sound, one of the major attractions of the vinyl LP is the sleeve art and it is great to see this being recognised in this way.”

VOTE FOR REST AND BE THANKFUL NOW

[joemcalindenmusic]

Linden - <3Felt

A song and a film for your pleasure x

[joemcalindenmusic]

Live At The BBC

WE had the great privilege of performing live on BBC The Quay Sessions this week with Edith Bowman... Here’s Rest And Be Thankful x

[joemcalindenmusic]

Cult heroes: Joe McAlinden searches for beauty in the matter-of-fact

His band Superstar never quite lived up to their name, despite being covered by Rod Stewart. Now, 30 years on, he returns as Linden, and he’s lost none of his melodic gift

Fantastic piece on Linden in Guardian Music today by music editor, Michael Hann...

 "Like his friends Teenage Fanclub, he writes songs that sound like real life: he searches for beauty amid the matter-of-fact; he writes from the perspective of a mature man, which means he knows sadness and loss, as well as joy and euphoria, and he recognises that life is made up of all these sensations. His music has the quiet dignity that comes with experience, but it’s not dignified per se: McAlinden has always made music that’s meant to be enjoyed, not pondered. Be thankful we have him back."

[joemcalindenmusic]

review: q magazine

Summery melancholy from well-connected Scotsman.

4/5 stars

_Linden is Joe McAlinden, the former frontman of Scottish indie-rockers Superstar and a collaborator with Teenage Fanclub, Rod Stewart and Alex Chilton. He’s such a hopeless romantic he still divides his sparklingly soulful albums into A and B sides. Three years after his wonderful Bleached Highlights LP, Rest And Be Thankful is an elegant and emotional collection recorded in an old fisherman’s croft on the shores of Loch Fyne. A master of the jangle-friendly, bittersweet melody, songs such as Window Pane, Yesterday_Rewind and Take My Hand appear in front of your eyes glowing like delicately drawn satellites launched from another, more hand-tooled time, yet they’re still warm to the touch. Spiced by McAlinden’s own sax and violin playing, Rest And Be Thankful is as welcome as the first true summer’s day in Argyll.

Rob Fitzpatrick

DOWNLOAD: Window Pane | Yesterday_Rewind | Take My Hand

[joemcalindenmusic]

review: the guardian

Rest and Be Thankful  – gently uplifting sunshine pop.

4/5 stars

Linden’s Joe McAlinden formerly fronted 90s Creation signings Superstar, purveyors of Big Star-influenced, sunshine-drenched guitar pop. They weren’t as successful as Scottish label-mates Teenage Fanclub, although they did earn the unlikely honour of Rod Stewart covering one of their songs. These days, McAlinden runs a “small, characterful” restaurant on the shores of Loch Fyne, which serves up the delights of “new garlic and pheasant’s egg”, but he clearly still allows time for melodic sunshine. The atmosphere of Argyll permeates songs recorded in a log cabin and peppered with references to boats, growing older and the joys of the elements, from the breeze to the rural sound of silence. Their gently uplifting sound spans a palette of references from the Velvet Underground to 70s MOR, and is polished up with twangy guitars and horns. At the album’s heart are McAlinden’s plaintive vocals, which drive beautifully observed songs that are as lovely as the sun over the loch.

Dave Simpson

photo credit: Murray McMillan

[joemcalindenmusic]

review: mojo magazine

Former Superstar frontman Joe McAlinden, as covered by Rod Stewart.

4/5 stars

In 1998 the Scotsman Joe McAlinden had diverse cultural register. Rod Stewart covered his song Superstar on When We Were The New Boys album. Highland-born author Alan Warner quoted McAlinden’s Every Second Hurts as an epigraph for his novel The Sopranos. There’s something distinctly Scottish to McAlinden’s modernisation of American West Coast pop, and there’s more of his emotive latter-day musical Caledonia on this second solo LP recorded in an old fisherman’s croft on Loch Fyne and named after a viewpoint on the road up out of Glen Croe. On Window Pane the blend of wistfulness and chiming melodic prettiness suggests prime Teenage Fanclub. On Broken Glass horns support a strong tune and McAlinden’s equally strong, keening voice. A record with beauty and sense of emotional elevation to match the place where it was made.

Roy Wilkinson

[joemcalindenmusic]

review: sunday herald

Rest And be Thankful - just reach for the replay button.

The new album from Joe McAlinden, once part of Creation signings Superstar, clocks in at just under the half-hour mark, but scattered across its 10 tracks are more melodic hooks than you might find in an album twice its length. A follow-up to 2012′s well-received Bleached Highlights and recorded in a makeshift studio at Loch Fyne, it contains, amidst the striking arrangements, traces of Teenage Fanclub and Big Star, amongst others. But there are lots of gorgeous musical touches here, framing McAlinden’s emotive voice and wistful, reflective lyrics. “Do you know the sound of silence?/Not the song/It’s just a thing I’ve got going on inside me,” he sings on Dream Dream. There are times when, for purely selfish reasons, you wish that McAlinden didn’t have such a taste for brevity. A case in point is his final track, Broken Glass, with its lovely, addictive chorus about falling stars like broken glass watching over him. The entire song is gone in less than three minutes; but then, you just reach for the replay button.

Russell Leadbetter