(Gibson) Wing Beat Fantastic, the album by Mike Keneally featuring songs he co-wrote with XTC's Andy Partridge, will be released on July 24.As previously reported, Wing Beat Fantastic is a 12-song album, eight of which were co-written by Keneally and Partridge during two writing sessions in 2006 and 2008. "The chance to work with Andy was absolutely a mind-blower," said Keneally, who quoted XTC's "The Mayor of Simpleton" in the song "Day of the Cow 2" from his 1992 debut hat. "He's a true songwriting hero of mine, and during the '80s he demonstrated that there was still a place for truly high-quality writing in pop music. His songwriting gift is still as strong as ever, and I'm fiercely grateful to be able to help bring new Andy Partridge music into the world."
Partridge said of the collaboration, "I didn't know how any of the tunes we'd agreed to write together were going to come out, but I know one thing, so musical is this man that him just sitting with a guitar across his lap or perched at a keyboard pulled things from me that I can honestly say 'I don't know where they came from.'" more on this story