New unreleased material on Missy Higgins’ best of set

Missy Higgins is releasing three previously unreleased tracks on her new Best Of album The Special Ones.

The album, announced this morning, is released on November 16.

It also features the new single Arrows.

“To me, songs can be ‘special ones’ for lots of reasons,” says Higgins.

“Usually, they’re the ones that get the biggest reaction at gigs, the ones that most connect with people, the ones that seem to have touched on some universal truth.

“They’re the hooky ones you can sing out loud in the shower while no one’s watching and imagine you’re in a stadium.

“But some are special for other reasons. They’re the ones that unexpectedly squeeze at your heart.

“They move you in a way you find hard to articulate, they roll to the rhythm of some internal beat you knew was there but couldn’t quite express.

“This album tries to balance these two types of special.”

The 16 tracks on The Special Ones includes cuts from her multi-platinum albums The Sound Of White, On A Clear Night, The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle, Oz and this year’s Solastalgia.

It opens with new song Arrows written originally for her wedding and recorded less than three days before she gave birth to her new baby daughter.

Discussing Arrows, Missy explains, “The lower register of my voice actually changes a bit when I’m pregnant,

“I guess it’s the hormones or something but, anyway, I wanted to take advantage of those temporary extra notes to record this song.

“We only just made it. A couple of days later and it would’ve had to be a duet with our little girl!”

The previously unreleased All For Believing rewinds to the start of her career.

It was written when she was 15, and she submitted it to the triple j Unearthed demo competition back in 2001.

Nestled alongside the hits are refugee benefit single Oh Canada, and Torchlight which she wrote for the end credits of the acclaimed Aussie film, Don’t Tell.

Two covers from her book/album project Oz are then joined by another reworking – a previously unreleased live version of the classic Throw Your Arms Around Me captured in front of over 80,000 people on the Ed Sheeran stadium tour last February.

“Those gigs were among the biggest highlights of my career,” recollects Higgins.

“I’d never played to that many people at once – it was a real adrenalin rush.

“The crowds were amazing so given that this album is supposed to represent all the special stuff from across the years I wanted to include something that represented that special tour.”

Album closer Run So Fast is a new original, featuring emerging local singer/songwriter Ben Abrahams.

Next January/February Higgins will hit the road with John Butler for a dozen shows around most of Australia including venues like Perth’s King’s Park, Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.