ALSO WORKING

…on signing a new Sony deal, JANELLE MONÁE (right) confirmed that she’s working on tracks with regular producers Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning. The latter is also co-founder of Wondaland Pictures, who are developing a sci-fi movie based on Monáe’s 2010 LP The ArchAndroid …Steve Diggle is recording a new BUZZCOCKS LP …Adam Clayton told the Rockonteurs podcast that U2 have recorded “acoustic versions of some of our catalogue in different keys, at different tempos as a challenge” …the reformed FOLK IMPLOSION are jamming new songs. Said guitarist/drummer John Davis, “it was very cool to hear Lou [Barlow]’s first new vocal melody come over the wire” …ZZ TOP plan to finish an LP they were recording with late bassist Dusty Hill. “We’ve got a couple of things [featuring Hill on vocals] that’ll make sense,” guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons told Variety …a new SOFT CELL album, Happiness Not Included, arrives in February 2022. Songs include Heart Like Chernobyl and I’m Not A Friend Of God …NEIL YOUNG (right) has shared news of the new Crazy Horse LP: “The Horse is definitely kickin’,” he wrote, “the music lives… the moon is full.” The nine new songs include Welcome Back and Song Of The Seasons …BRIAN WILSON’s At My Piano, featuring voice-and-keys treatments of songs from the catalogue, arrives in November… in August MICHAEL STIPE told The New Yorker, “I’m quantising a lot of music, because I’m composing myself, and I’m very, very limited as a musician…”