The Bad Plus - It's Hard (2016)

The piano-bass-drums trio, The Bad Plus are back with It's Hard, which features iconic covers of songs made famous by Prince, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Peter Gabriel, TV On The Radio, Kraftwerk, Ornette Coleman, and more.

With It's Hard, the band's 11th studio recording, The Bad Plus returns to the distinctive deconstruction of Pop forms that drew their first international attention almost two decades ago, and is their first album comprised entirely of covers in almost 10 years

The band's eleventh studio recording, It's Hard sees the leaderless trio - bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King - returning to the distinctive deconstruction of the pop forms that drew their first international attention almost two decades ago. Recorded this past April at NYC's Brooklyn Recording with longtime engineer Pete Rende (Joshua Redman, Bill McHenry), the album spans both era and inspiration as The Bad Plus offer new perspectives on classic songs from the 1970's to the 2010's.

"We've always made it a point in our music to cut a wide swath, both stylistically and emotionally," says Reid Anderson, "and the songs on It's Hard are a reflection of that principal. Each song is an opportunity to try something unique, and every arrangement and performance represent the combined perspective of three very different personalities - which is the essence to the sound of The Bad Plus."

Tracklist:

01 Maps 04:21
02 Games without Frontiers 04:19
03 Time After Time 06:14
04 I Walk the Line 03:18
05 Alfombra Magica 04:07
06 The Beautiful Ones 03:32
07 Don't Dream It's Over 05:22
08 Staring at the Sun 04:27
09 Mandy 06:14
10 The Robots 03:30
11 Broken Shadows 03:32