M. Ward Unveils Billie Holiday Covers Album 'Think of Spring'

Hear his newly shared rendition of "For Heaven's Sake"

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Oct 15, 2020

M. Ward is once again returning with a new album, but this time it's an entire covers record dedicated to Billie Holiday. Called Think of Spring, the record will arrive via Anti- on December 11.

The album follows this year's Migration Songs, making this his second full-length effort of the year.

Right now, you can get a taste of Think of Spring via Ward's newly shared cover of "For Heaven's Sake."

"It still feels good to invent new guitar tunings and use them to help deconstruct old songs," M. Ward said in a statement. "Billie Holiday's 'For Heaven's Sake' in a modified open B."

As a press release explains, the album features an intimate sound captured by "filtering the original songs and strings through a single acoustic guitar, using various alternate tunings and a minimal amount of textures and studio manipulation." Helping add to the intimate feel, most of the songs were recorded on an old analog Tascam 4-track.

"I first heard [Billie's album] Lady in Satin in a mega-shopping mall somewhere in San Francisco," Ward explained in a statement. "I was about 20 years old and didn't know much about Billie's records or her life or how her voice changed over the years. Anyway, the sound was coming from the other side of the mall and I remember mistaking her voice for a beautiful perfectly distorted electric guitar — some other-world thing floating there on this strange mournful ocean of strings and I was hooked for life."

Proceeds from Think of Spring will benefit Inner-City Arts & DonorsChoose via PLUS1 for Black Lives Fund.




Think of Spring:

1. I Get Along Without You Very Well
2. For Heaven's Sake
3. It's Easy To Remember
4. You've Changed
5. Violets For Your Furs
6. For All We Know
7. But Beautiful
8. All The Way
9. I'm A Fool To Want You
10. I'll Be Around
11. You Don't Know What Love Is

Pre-order Think of Spring.

Latest Coverage