Texas: The Conversation version on vinyl LP in Standard edition. This particular edition was published in Europe in publishing company [PIAS] Recordings on 16. February 2024.

It was a March evening in 1988, a student party at Dundee University, when even those in front of the stage didn't really know what they were seeing and hearing. They just had to watch and listen. A quartet as a bunch, with a punch and pop charm reminiscent of Blondie or the Pretenders a decade earlier. Right up front was a tantalizingly androgynous twenty-year-old singer with scarlet lips and black hair, who swung her Telecaster around her waist like a gunslinger swings his Colt. The music itself was unmistakably modern, but with flashes of classic soul, country and 50s pop. It was as if this fantastic place somewhere between Glasgow and Memphis had been designed by a rock'n'roll urbanite in a dream. A sound that soon went around the world like Texas. Twenty-five years later, the Texans have signed their eighth album to finally continue the "conversation" that began that night in Dundee. And which had meanwhile written one of British pop music's greatest success stories. Starting with their first Top 10 hit "I Don't Want A Lover" (1989) to the multi-platinum albums "White On Blonde" (1997), "The Hush" (1999) and "Greatest Hits" (2000). Globally, the Texans have sold more albums to date than the residents of the American state that gave them their name. And that's about 30 million... "I'm already very proud that we've lasted 25 years," sums up Sharleen Spiteri, singer, songwriter and iconic face of Texas. "And happy. After the last Red Book album and subsequent tour, it was time to take a break in 2005. We were thinking about a year or two to give us time for families or other projects. It wasn't supposed to be that long. But none of us could have known what would happen after that." In September 2009 - Spiteri was passing the time with, among other things, her Top 3 solo album "Melody" - founding member Ally McErlaine was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Chances of survival: maybe 20 percent. That the guitarist made a full recovery was actually miracle enough. But neither Spiteri nor bassist and co-writer Johnny McElhone could have guessed that McErlaine would become the driving force that would bring Texas back to the stages as soon as possible. "Yes, Ally was the catalyst," Spiteri admits. "After I brought his guitar to the hospital, he played and it sounded great. Even though he was cursing himself, he was also the one who later said: "I want to go on tour!" And at first we were like, "What are you talking about?!" Just as his aneurysm almost meant the end of Texas, his recovery became a new beginning." So even at the first rehearsal, there was an aura of rebirth. "We smiled at each other... like we'd forgotten we weren't so bad after all," Sharleen Spiteri recalls. And soon the first songs for "The Conversation" appeared, redefining Texas a little differently after all these years, but melodic and emotional enough to stand easily alongside their classics like "Say What You Want." From "Dry Your Eyes", which should flatter Debbie Harry, to the always stadium homage "Detroit City", to the anthemic title track, which is a feast of swamp rock guitars and dirty traces of lost romance. "We were just ready," Spiteri says. "No outside pressure. That's what we do and what we've done for most of our adult lives. We get together, sit down with our guitars, and then all of a sudden the music comes out of nowhere. It may sound incredibly old-fashioned today, but that's how we make music and we've always believed that's how great songs are made. Not because we're staring at screens with programmers in the studio, but because people are singing and playing together." After their first demos with Bernard Butler (ex-Suede), Spiteri and McElhone found another instigator of their newly ignited muse in the universally admired singer-songwriter Richard Hawley. It was pretty cold in his rehearsal room in Sheffield, but that didn't detract from their productivity over just two days together, probably because they could always warm up in the pub next door in between. "I've never drunk so much alcohol in my life," Spiteri admits, "I needed a week's holiday after this!" The highlight of the party was probably when they were singing Elvis songs with the security guard in the hotel foyer at 4am... Not to mention the songs they wrote together that now form the core of "The Conversation". The perfect combination of Hawley's '50s rock 'n' roll aesthetic and the Texan's knack for timeless melodies, whether in the smooth surf sound of "I Will Always" or the hip-hop girl swing of "Talk About Love."-"Writing with Richard was a dream come true," Spiteri says. "The man just has music in every finger." Karen Anne as another co-writer and guest guitarist "Little Barrie" Cadogan (Primal Scream) also contributed their parts. The Texans took charge of the album's production themselves, with help from Gorillaz mixer Jason Cox, who provided the final touches at Damon Albarn's studio. The result is a sound as colossal as the Glasgow - Sheffield - London axis suggests. Which sounds instantly familiar, yet pleasantly surprising. "The funny thing is, if you asked me what a Texan album should sound like, I couldn't tell you," muses Sharleen Spiteri. "But I do know that The Conversation sounds exactly like a Texas album." Some of the songs, like the title track and "Detroit City," have previously been through the live fire after the band started touring again in 2011 and the thumbs went up. "That's when you know if a song is really good or not," Spiteri says. "But we could barely recover from the fact that all these 19-, 20-year-old guys were now singing our old hits. And I thought: How can you recognize them? But they're probably just kids who sat in the back of the car on the way to school when you couldn't turn on the radio without ever hearing Texas. Our old fans still remain while a new generation comes along. And that's another reason why it feels right now that we're starting up again with the band." "And beyond that," concludes Sharleen Spiteri, "we just know we made a great record. This is Texas with the best we can write." And so "The Conversation" became a celebration as well. With eleven salutes, we are beautifully aware that the musical dialogue between Texas and this world hasn't died down after all, 25 years after that March night in Dundee. Let it continue.... Review , "As much as Texans love to dive into shallow waters... they haven't been this fresh and soulful in a long time." (Rolling Stone, May 2013) ,,...backed by Bernard Butler (ex-Suede) and Richard Hawley, the new songs sparkle with sunny optimism; we haven't heard such poppy love notes from Texas in a long time." (Good Times, June/July 2013) , "A quality product of the genre, without the barbs." (stereoplay, July 2013)

Album spans genres Rock, Pop, Electronic and Pop Rock. 180g Vinyl.