From Franz Ferdinand and Ringo Starr to Gué: the upcoming albums

After the short Christmas break in which new music was released, but with less assiduity and with projects with less consistent firepower, the market returns to churning out albums and, as always, the range of choice is wide. They range from Franz Ferdinand to former Beatle Ringo Starr up to a dive into Italian music with Gué’s new project and the return to the scene, with an album of unreleased songs, by Donatella Rettore. Below are the most significant record releases from this Friday 10th January.

Ringo Starr – “Look up”

“Back to the roots”: never was an expression more apt than in this case.

At 84, Ringo Starr amazes everyone and with his first album since 2019 he returns to an old love of his: country. There is romance behind this story. Before joining the Beatles, in Liverpool in the early 1960s, Richard Starkey, then twenty years old, performed with a group that offered a repertoire centered on everything that revolved around American country music and its derivatives: they were the At Caldwell’s Texans, which later became Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Now comes this “Look up”, which almost represents a closing of the circle: Ringo recorded it in Nashville together with T Bone Burnett, producer already alongside Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and “our” Zucchero, and with country talents new generation like Larkin Poe, Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, Lucius, Molly Tuttle. Already in 1970, a few months after the dissolution of the Beatles, Starr released a country album, “Beaucoups of blues”: it wasn’t exactly a success, but after more than half a century it remains one of the works most loved by fans. “I love country music. In Liverpool the city boys were in the merchant navy. They went to America and came back with all those records. Today we’re seeing a renaissance of the genre and I’m happy about it,” he says.

Franz Ferdinand – “The Human Fear”

The Scottish band have announced their new studio album entitled “The Human Fear”, out Friday 10 January. This is the sixth studio album for Alex Kapranos’ band (here is our interview), the first since “Always Ascending” in 2018. Produced together with Mark Ralph, who had already collaborated with them for the 2013 album “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action”, the album shows Franz Ferdinand full of energy, aiming without hesitation at the more pop side, following the classic style of the formation. Recorded at AYR Studios in Scotland, the 11 songs on The Human Fear all reference the deepest human fears, and how overcoming and accepting them guide and define our lives.

Gué – “Tropic of Capricorn”

A cinematic trailer revealed what many have been waiting for: a new Gué album, out January 10th. In the clip, directed by Fabrizio Conte, the rapper is seen driving a car, with a shot of the eyes that is very reminiscent of that of cult films such as “Sin City”, which features a James Bond-style snow chase, between speeding jeeps and snipers stationed in the mountains. A bullet reaches him, and the title is revealed: “Tropic of Capricorn”. The project’s productions are curated by Sixpm, Chef P, Big Fish, Bassi Maestro and Harry Fraud. References to the big screen have always been a fixed point in Gué’s rap who, after the successful experience of the reunion with Club Dogo which took place in 2024, complete with a tour also marked by a symbolic date at San Siro, returns with a solo project two years after “Madreperla”, an excellent album made with Bassi Maestro.

Rector – “Antidiva rumpus”

Tremble: Rector has returned. Fans of the voice of “Kobra”, “Lamette” and “Splendido splendide” have been waiting for this moment for fourteen, very long years: it was 2011 when Donatella Rettore sent “Caduta massi” to the shops, which has remained to this day her last album unpublished. Now on the eve of her 70th birthday – she will turn it in July – the singer-songwriter returns to the scene with “Antidiva putiferio”. The album returns the artist to the public in all her splendor: curious, restless, ironic, unscrupulous, rebellious, Rettore is the same as always. In the album, new generation talents such as Ditonellapiaga (with whom he participated in the Sanremo Festival in 2022 with “Chimica”), BigMama (“Disco prosecco”) and Beatrice Quinta (in “Thelma & Louise”) are confronted with his charisma .