Bruce Dickinson’s second album of 1994 ‘Balls To Picasso’ will be reissued for July as ‘More Balls To Picasso’.
‘Balls To Picasso’ had a difficult birth. Dickinson originally started the album working with UK band Skin. That was aborted. Keith Olsen had a second attempt at the album before that was canned. He then brought in Roy Z who has since been his longtime collaborator. Roy Z was worked with Bruce for the last 30 years right through to 2024’s ‘The Mandrake Project’.
Of ‘Balls To Picasso’ Dickinson says, “While mixing all my catalogue into Dolby Atmos I had a nagging desire to revisit and reinvent the record. So putting more balls into ‘Balls…’ was a labour of love. Of course, we beefed up the guitars – courtesy of our ‘Swedish shredder’ Philip Naslund and we added some really beautiful work by Adassi Addasi on ‘Tears…’ as well. Fellow Brazilian composer Antonio Teoli added some stunning orchestral arrangements, and in a unique contribution, added indigenous instruments from the Amazon (recorded by himself when he lived there!) at the beginning of ‘Gods Of War’.
Check out the new mix of ‘Gods Of War’:
By the time ‘Balls for Picasso’ was released in 1994, Dickinson had left Iron Maiden, skipping the two albums ‘The X Factor’ (1995) and ‘Virtual XI’ (1998) both of which features singer Blaze Bayley.
Dickinson released four solo albums during his break from the band with ‘Skunkworks’ (1996), ‘Accident of Birth’ (1997) and ‘The Chemical Wedding’ (1998) following ‘Balls To Picasso’. Bruce returned to Iron Maiden for 2000’s ‘Brave New World’. Maiden’s most recent album was ‘Senjutsu’ in 2021.
Balls To Picasso Tracklisting
1. Cyclops
2. Hell No
3. Gods of War
4. 1000 Points of Light
5. Laughing in the Hiding Bush
6. Change of Heart
7. Shoot All the Clowns
8. Fire
9. Sacred Cowboys
10. Tears of the Dragon
11. Gods of War (Live in the Studio)*
12. Shoot All the Clowns (Live in the Studio)*
* Previously unreleased
More Balls To Picasso will be available on July 25.
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