Rod Stewart will release The Tears of Hercules — his 31st studio album and his first new record in three years — on November 12.
The 12-track collection features nine new original songs and three covers, including renditions of Johnny Cash‘s “These Are My People” and Soul Brothers Six‘s “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
In advance of the new album, Stewart has released the lead track, a country-pop gem titled “One More Time,” as a digital single, and has premiered a companion music video on his official YouTube channel.
Stewart co-wrote “One More Time” and a few other songs on The Tears of Hercules with keyboardist-songwriter Kevin Savigar, who also was Rod’s main collaborator on his three most recent previous albums. Stewart co-produced all four albums with Savigar.
Among the other standout tracks on The Tears of Hercules is “Touchline,” a song about how Rod’s father inspired his love of soccer, a passion Stewart’s passed on to his own sons.
The album also includes song titled “Born to Boogie (A Tribute to Mark Bolan),” a tune Stewart co-wrote with his touring guitarist, Emerson Swinford, as an homage to T. Rex‘s late frontman.
In the liner notes for The Tears of Hercules, Rod writes, “I’ve never said this before about any previous efforts, but I believe this is by far my best album in many a year.”
The Tears of Hercules can be pre-ordered now on CD, as a vinyl LP and in digital formats.
On the performance front, Stewart’s next concert will take place on October 2 in Sparks, Nevada, and he’ll then kick off a new series of Las Vegas residency dates at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on October 6.
Here’s The Tears of Hercules‘ full track list:
“One More Time”
“Gabriella”
“All My Days”
“Some Kind of Wonderful”
“Born to Boogie (A Tribute to Mark Bolan)”
“Kookooaramabama”
“I Can’t Imagine”
“The Tears of Hercules”
“Hold On”
“Precious Memories”
“These Are My People”
“Touchline”
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