For Beginners: The Best of M. Ward is a collection for M. Ward fans of any vintage. Gathering together 14 tracks from across his Merge Records discography, including the newly recorded song Cry, For Beginners is both a primer and a mixtape of favorites sequenced in a way that gives them new life.
Beginning with Chinese Translation and Poison Cup from 2006s Post War, For Beginners drops in on Ward as he expands his prowess in the studio.
His singular cover of David Bowies Lets Dance, from 2003s Transfiguration of Vincent, breaks out into the exuberant Never Had Nobody Like You from 2009s Hold Time. Rather than the neat evolutionary line suggested by a chronological arrangement, what holds For Beginners together is Wards impeccable skill as a songwriter, which remains in focus as his sound expands from low-fi home recordings to electric, radio-ready stompers.
Serendipitously timed for release during Merge Records 35-year anniversary, this celebration of one of the labels most beloved artists includes Cry his first new recording on Merge since 2018 a stripped-down cover of the Godley & Creme pop classic featuring Melbourne, Australias Folk Bitch Trio. M. Ward on Cry:
Cry was recorded in a Tasmanian modern art museum called MONA. I sat at the end of a long hallway a few feet away from Anselm Kiefers sculpture of a 20-foot-high stack of lead books, and standing to my left and right around a single microphone were Melbournes Folk Bitch Trio; we rehearsed and recorded Cry in about 30 minutes. A pleasure to add this song to a collection of some of my favorite memories of music-making during the first decade of record-creating with my friends at Merge. The song is the perfect capstone for a collection of this nature, summing up much of Wards power as a musician: the richness hes capable of achieving in sparse recordings, his knack for collaboration, and his ability to see through to the soul of a meticulously crafted pop song as much a means of looking forward to whats to come of his own work as it is a callback to his past.
Tracklist:
A1. Chinese Translation
A2. Poison Cup
A3. Lets Dance
A4. Never Had Nobody Like You
A5. Lullaby + Exile
A6. Duet For Guitars #3
A7. Vincent O Brien
B8. For Beginners
B9. Magic Trick
B10. Outta My Head
B11. Undertaker
B12. Roller Coaster
B13. Hold Time
B14. Cry
