Meat Loaf
Music comes no bigger than Meat Loaf! After 40 years and selling over 100 million records, among them one of the biggest albums of all time, Meat Loaf has been a larger than life presence in music with his unique songs and stellar collaborations. Bat Out of Hell sold over 2.1 million copies in the UK and has been awarded Platinum status 23 times. And now, Meat Loaf does it all again with the release of his new album ‘Hell In A Handbasket’, released in the UK 27 February 2012 through Sony Commercial Music Group.
Like most Meat Loaf albums, ‘Hell In A Handbasket’is a BIG album with every song delivering a message that alludes to the theme of the album. Meat Loaf describes it as “the most personal record I’ve ever made. It’s about how I feel the world’s gone to hell in a handbasket. It’s really the first record that I’ve ever put out about how I feel about life and how I feel about what’s going on at the moment.”
Produced by Paul Crook, Hell In A Handbasket once again features some interesting collaborations and special guests. Public Enemy’s Chuck D contributes an original rap mixed into a cover of Tom Cochran’s ‘Mad Mad World’. Entitled ‘The Good God’s a Woman And She Don’t Like Ugly’, it’s every bit as interesting as the titles alludes to. Meat Loaf said, “Chuck D is the rapper’s rapper. He is the original, and every rapper that has come after him wants to be like him. For us to have him on this record is a major coup and I am so impressed with what he wrote!”
Lil Jon, another well-known rap artist who appeared in Celebrity Apprentice alongside Meat Loaf, appears on ‘Stand In the Storm.’ And certainly, no album would be complete without long time duet partner Patti Russo who features on two songs: ‘Our Love And Our Souls’ and a version of The Mammas and The Pappas classic ‘California Dreamin’.’ The new Meat Loaf tracks on Hell In A Handbasket include “All of Me,” “The Giving Tree,” “Live or Die,” “Blue Sky/Mad Mad World/The Good God is a Woman and She Don’t Like Ugly” (special appearance by Chuck D), “California Dreamin’” (duet with Patti Russo), “Party of One,” “Another Day,” “40 Days,” “Our Love and Our Souls” (duet with Patti Russo), “Stand in the Storm” (special guest appearances from Trace Adkins, Lil Jon and Mark McGrath), “Blue Sky,” and “Fall From Grace.”
