Duncan Sheik Releases 'Fake Plastic Trees' from New Album 'Live at the Cafe Carlyle'

Today, singer, songwriter, and composer Duncan Sheik released a cover of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees," taken from his upcoming live album Live at the Cafe Carlyle (out December 4th via Sneaky Records / Missing Piece Records). "It's just one of those songs I feel like I can sink my teeth into," Sheik told HuffPost. "It's just a really poignant idea a?? how contemporary urban life alienates us from everything real. It captured a moment in time that I just carry around." Accompanying the single is a live session filmed at Sheik's Sneaky Studios in Garrison, NY.

Duncan Sheik launched his career in 1996 with his self-titled debut album, which featured Sheik's breakthrough hit "Barely Breathing" - the song racked up 55 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In the years since, Sheik has released seven full-length albums including 2015's Legerdemain, which was praised by LA Times, NPR, Paste, Chicago Tribune and more.

Sheik's work as a composer has also garnered numerous awards and acclaim. His 2007 Broadway musical Spring Awakening won eight Tony Awards and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Projects that followed include American Psycho, Alice By Heart, Secret Life of Bees, Because of Winn Dixie, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

Live At The Cafe Carlyle was recorded during a week of shows in early October 2017, and features songs that span Duncan Sheik's wide ranging career. Earlier this month Sheik released the album's first two singles "Circling" and "Touch Me" - "Circling" is originally from his 2015 critically acclaimed album Legerdemain, and "Touch Me" is from Sheik's Tony and Grammy winning Musical Spring Awakening. The Live at the Cafe Carlyle version of "Touch Me" features guest vocals from Tony-nominee Kathryn Gallagher. Other songs on the setlist include his hit debut single "Barely Breathing," "This Is Not An Exit" from his musical adaptation of American Psycho, and previously unreleased covers of songs by Tom Petty, Radiohead, and more.

Live at the Cafe Carlyle is out December 4th via Sneaky Records / Missing Piece Records.

Listen to "Fake Plastic Trees" below!

Tracklisting:

1. Introduction

2. Circling

3. Half A Room

4. Memento

5. Such Reveries

6. For You

7. Lay Down Your Weapons

8. Forbidden Colours

9. Stripped

10. Face In The Crowd

11. Mama Who Bore Me

12. Touch Me

13. Afternoon

14. Barely Breathing

15. Fake Plastic Trees

16. This Is Not An Exit

17. So There

Photo Credit: Myrna Suarez