Missy Higgins’ ‘OZ’ Is Both An Album And A Book

Melburnian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins is set to release an album comprised of covers of Australian artists, as well as a book of related essays this September. Higgins’ OZ album will contain 15 re-imaginings of Australian songs from a diverse list of artists, including The Drones, Slim Dusty, The Angels and Something For Kate.

Accompanying OZ will be a book of essays in which Higgins uses the titles of songs on the album as starting points for essays which reflect on the themes of life and love, calling on her own personal experiences as she prepares to give birth to her first child in January.

“I wanted to try something different this time around,” Missy says of OZ. “I couldn’t decide between making a covers album or writing a book so I decided to do both at once. Musically it’s intended to be a real mixed bag of lollies.

“Obviously part of the reason I called the whole project OZ is that it’s all about Australian songs. Plus, for the first time, I recorded the whole thing in Australia. However the title has a second meaning,” Higgins added.

“I like the idea of songwriters being like the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. Some people think we’re special people who have special powers but really we’re just scared little people hiding in a backroom somewhere, working like crazy to make sure we don’t get found out.”

The recordings on OZ were created using live production techniques, and features contributions from other artists such as Dan Sultan and Kate Miller Heidke, as well as Amanda Palmer, who helped out on a cover of Paul Kelly‘s Before Too Long.

OZ will be available in a cloth-bound CD/Book edition, as well as in separate physical and digital formats on 19th September. It’s available for pre-order on Tuesday, 5th August via Missy Higgins’ official website. The album’s full tracklisting and artwork are available below.

Watch: Missy Higgins – Making of OZ (Episode 1)

Watch: Missy Higgins, Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff – Before Too Long (Paul Kelly cover)

OZ Tracklisting

1: You Only Hide (Something For Kate)

2: Old Fitzroy (Dan Sultan)

3: NYE (Perry Keyes)

4: Shark Fin Blues (The Drones)

5: Was There Anything I Could Do (The Go-Betweens)

6: Back To The Wall (Divinyls)

7: Don’t Believe Anymore (Icehouse)

8: The Biggest Disappointment feat. Dan Sultan (Slim Dusty)

9: Everybody Wants To Touch Me (Paul Kelly)

10: Curse On You (The Blackeyed Susans)

11: No Secrets (The Angels)

12: Before Too Long feat. Amanda Palmer (Paul Kelly)

13: Blackfella/Whitefella feat. Crystal Itjuwalyi Butcher (Warumpi Band)

14: Calm And Crystal Clear (Neil Murray)

15: The Way You Are Tonight (Don Walker)

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