Devin Townsend's new album, Lightwork, has officially arrived today (November 4), although it's missing one planned track - a song titled Honeybunch. The song, which featured guitar from none other than funk legend Nile Rodgers, unfortunately had to be dropped due to clearance issues, as it used melodies from Aqua's 1997 kids party floor-filler Barbie Girl.
Speaking of the dilemma, the prog-metal heavyweight tells our friends over at Guitar World: "We had recorded this song called Honeybunch, which has this [melody] taken from Barbie Girl. I thought the loophole was that if you re-record the sample, you could use it because it’s not their version. But it turns out that’s not the case!"
In its place on the album is a song called Heartbreaker, which as Townsend explains, was originally lined up to feature on Lightwork's bonus disc. "It's not the original vibe" he says, "however, on some level I think it makes it better for me. I'm strangely thankful that at the last minute I got to complicate it a little bit."
For those wanting to hear the Townsend/Barbie Girl epic, fear not, as you may very well get the chance, depending on whether Aqua give the go ahead and approve use of the melody.
In the mean time, you can listen to the prog master's new album Lightwork now, which Classic Rock describes as "a simple and heartfelt collection of (mainly) straightforward pop-metal songs, all with melodies so large you could stick a flag in them and claim them for the nation of your choosing."
