Lisa Marie Presley 'Now What' album

If anyone’s particularly well suited to taking on bloodthirsty newscasters in song, it’s Lisa Marie Presley.

Listening to her blistering rendition of “Dirty Laundry,” the first single from her new album, Now What, it’s apparent that the song, a sardonic indictment of the broadcast news industry, may be even more relevant now than when Don Henley and Danny Kortchmar penned it some 23 years ago.

In the week preceding the album’s release, Presley will appear on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” (March 28th), “Good Morning America” (March 29th) and “Late Show With David Letterman” (April 1st). She’ll be a guest on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on April 5th, the day of release. ABC is currently using Presley’s version of “Dirty Laundry” in promos for its hit show “Desperate Housewives.”

By turns poetic, vitriolic, shimmering and shattering, Now What is, like Presley herself, unflinchingly direct. “Please remember me, forever believe in me, as someone who‘s never gonna wish you well,” she sings on “Idiot,” a track that features Steve Jones on guitar. She’s not exactly easy on herself, either, reserving praise for the friends and fans who stand by her while skewering herself on “Thanx:” ”And here’s to the next time I wrap myself around a tree, I know that you’ll be there with bells on to pull me off.”

Presley penned the lyrics for 10 of the album’s 11 songs, working with Linda Perry, Eric Rosse (who produced Now What as well as her debut album), Gus Penaloza and her partner, Michael Lockwood (who also executive produced the album with Presley) on the music. Thanking Linda Perry in the liner notes, Presley says: “I thought if I wrote with a bad ass popular songwriter, they would try and push me to a compromised Politically Correct Commercial Place. THANK YOU for NOT doing that! You went with who I am…and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun in the writing process.” (The two wrote six songs together). Another gratifying collaboration was with Pink, who guests on the wistful “Shine.”

Now What, which was mixed by Tom Lord-Alge and Dave Way, is the follow-up to Presley’s 2003 debut, To Whom It May Concern, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 and is currently certified Gold. The album was praised by critics from coast to coast. “Respect is precisely what she wants – and on the strength of the pointedly titled To Whom It May Concern…she’s likely to get it,” said the New York Times while the Los Angeles Times described “Lights Out,“ the first single, as “a powerful, hauntingly personal work.”

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Lisa Marie Presley - Now What