“There’s a line I have to cross tonight, If I want to stay alive” sings The Alarm ‘slead singer Mike Peters on “Transition,” the new brand new recording that has been added to the digital release of Music Television on August 23, 2024. A technicolor homage to the video explosion of the 1980s through a reinterpreted collection of MTV channel classics, Music Television will be available for streaming and DSPs everywhere via Twenty First Century Recordings on August 23, 2024.
First planned for release on vinyl and CD in May 2024, the album was set to coincide with the originally planned Live Today Love Tomorrow 45 Date tour of the U.S. which was cancelled at the last minute when Mike Peters was diagnosed with an ultra rare cancer condition known as Richters’s Syndrome.
“The Richter’s transformation happened out of the blue, and I was officially diagnosed just seven days before the tour was due to begin,” says lead singer Mike Peters. “I was plunged back into the dark world of cancer and have had to endure intense chemotherapy and now hope to find a potential donor for a proposed Stem Cell Transplant in the near future. Life could not be more uncertain, but music keeps me strong.”
“Listening back to the tracks on Music Television makes me think my subconscious was trying to communicate with me before life played its hand,” continues Mike. “Songs like ‘Beat It’ have taken on an altogether new meaning since I recorded the song earlier this year. ‘In The Air Tonight’ and ‘Don’t Change’ all have a different resonance in the new light my life now presents itself. I have added a new recording of the song ‘Transition’ from last year’s Forwards album as a signal of my intent to survive the transplant and get back to real life sometime in 2025. ‘No one wants to be defeated’ and I am determined to bring about a positive outcome, I have optimistic options ahead of me, and, like all the songs on Music Television that have survived the years since they were first written, so will I.”
Originally Inspired by David Bowie’s 1973 album of glam-proto-punk cover versions Pin Ups, Music Television by The Alarm will step back into the future reinterpreting songs from some of rock’s most influential and defining moments in visual music. “The Alarm came of age in the MTV era” states Peters, “So many of our longstanding fans grew up on MTV and saw The Alarm for the first time on MTV’s The Cutting Edge or via the historic ‘Spirit Of ‘’86 Live Global Broadcast’ concert, and have stayed with us ever since,”
Featuring 12 tracks celebrating both influential and underrated artists from Generation MTV that changed and influenced the lives of so many, Music Television features a psychedelic David Bowie-inspired / Nirvana-influenced acoustic cover of “The Man Who Sold The World.” which Peters attributes to his fascination with the groundbreaking MTV Unplugged acoustic performance series. “Unplugged was a series that redefined music as we knew it,” he says. “I remember watching in awe at some of the incredible stripped-down arrangements of classic songs and, at the same time envious that I had been denied the opportunity to appear on the show back in the day. [The Alarm appeared in the series’ first season but without Peters]. This is my chance to take back part of music television history and pay my respects to an era that changed everything.”
Music Television kicks off with a reimagining of Dire Straits MTV anthem “Money For Nothing” (the first song to be played on MTV Europe in 1987), is re-modeled into a garage rock harmonica-driven anthem in the electro-acoustic style of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. The first ever song to be played on MTV back in 1981 – The Buggles “Video Killed The Radio Star” is also featured with a subtle lyric change that reflects the threat of A.I. and new technology on rock and roll as we now know it. Among other songs getting re-imaginings include INXS’ “Don’t Change,” The Blow Monkeys’ “Live Today Love Tomorrow,” Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” and Modern English’s classic “I Melt With You” (full track listing below).
A redrawing of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” embraces the original’s spacious atmospherics and injects raw electronic blues into the mix, centering it on Peters’ iconic vocals. “I was walking with my guitar in NYC’s Central Park when I came across a busker playing a stripped-back minor key version on a beat-up old guitar and I joined in,” recalls Peters about his chance encounter in 2023. “It was truly amazing to hear a song so familiar in unfamiliar surroundings. I asked him where he first heard the song, and he said ‘MTV, Man!’ and that gave me the inspiration for this version of the track.”
Music Television by The Alarm will be released via all DSP’s on August 23, 2024.