“Moyet’s finest album in twenty years” – Clash Magazine

“a total triumph” – Classic Pop

“one of the finest studio releases of her career to date” – Renowned for Sound

“her best LP in decades” – Q Magazine

“A musical resurrection in the making” - The Huffington Post

“the minutes is stirring and beautiful” – The Express

Speaking on Twitter today, Alison welcomed the positive feedback from critics and fans alike: “My album ‘the minutes’ out today. Blown away by your feedback. Thank you! Happy as a happy thing. xxx”

Full details of how to buy the minutes (signed CD, digital download with bonus track and red vinyl format) here

But we are offering 5 of these posters, which will be signed by both Alison and Guy Sigsworth, as prizes in a new competition.

How To Enter

To enter, you must send an email to comp@alisonmoyet.com with the following:

1. Your name

2. Your address

3. Your answer to this question:

From the very first date and time Alison and Guy went into the studio together to the very last date and time of the mastering of the record, how many minutes did it take to make the minutes?

4. You must include your answer in the title of the email.

Terms and Conditions:
The competition closes on April 30, 2013. The 5 winners will be chosen from the first five entries chosen at random – and their answer is within 20,000 minutes of the correct answer. If there are not 5 entries within 20,000 minutes of the correct answer, the winners will be chosen at random.
There are no geographical restrictions to entrants. No cash equivalent to the prize.

The single is available to buy all three tracks from iTunes for only £1.29 – here – though if you only wanted to buy one individual track out of the three then Amazon UK works out better value at 89p per mp3 – here.

A couple of 5-star reviews of the single have emerged already. So So Gay described it as a “spine-tingling single” and Renowned for Sound suggested that Alison “delivers one of the finest releases of her career” with When I Was Your Girl.

“Basically, we all feel slightly cheated when our life does not end up being this stream of joy and one thing that you do understand when you come middle aged is that it was never about that, it was always a lie, that it was always about fantastic minutes that are suspended in years, and that’s what this is about” Alison told listeners about the new album. “All the years of fighting to make a creative record for myself rather than do a covers album. These are my minutes.”

In the interview, Alison revealed that the sound of the single of ‘When I Was Your Girl’ is quite unusual for the album and was the one that radio was more likely to play.

Another hint about ‘the minutes’ is that some tracks are very much about the single whereas others are about the vibe of the track. Graham noted that Alison’s voice is more produced on some of the tracks than he had heard it before.

Alison warned fans to expect the electronica of a very programmed, produced album as opposed to electro.

The singer revealed that she and Guy had written the album over three years, having rejected lots of album deals that were only about Etta James covers. And praised her new record label Cooking Vinyl for taking the record on without trying change it.

Alison confirmed that touring this album would involve computers and screens and would allow her to revisit Yazoo tracks and early solo material that she has been unable to in recent solo tours with a generic band.

Intriguingly Alison admitted that she thinks this will be her favourite album of her own in that it works lyrically and sonically for her.

Listeners can hear the interview on the Graham Norton Radio 2 site here

There are some territorial variations:

Today, the video is available to the UK, Ireland, France, SA, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, Italy and Greece – click here

Tomorrow from 12 (GMT), it will be available everywhere else, except USA and Canada.

And the USA and Canada will be able to see the video next week. Worth the wait, we promise!

If you missed the show, you can catch the programme again via http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r70xl

There are now a very limited number of signed CDs of the minutes that Alison has signed with her own fair hand that are available to buy – £9.99

Signed CDsClick here to order the minutes signed CD

The album is available to buy from iTunes. This option includes an exclusive bonus track of Filigree – the West Coast remix - £7.99

iTunes DownloadClick here to Order the minutes from iTunes including exclusive extra track

A Bank Holiday bargain offer on a download of the minutes is also available on Amazon UK for just £4.99 (for limited time only)

Regular AlbumClick here to Order the minutes through Amazon UK

For vinyl enthusiasts, you can now pre-order the LP on limited and exclusive 180g, red-coloured vinyl with download card (released on the 20th May) - £12.99

Alison: “Very glad to announce that I am heading back into tour central. Returning with my new album the minutes, shifted the bent and will see me returning to the stage with computers and screens and programming a go-go.

This tour, highlighting my new material, will take advantage of the altered line-up to approach again songs from Yazoo, my early solo synth years and Hometime, I reckon.

Ballads will be in short supply. Invisible, just that. Don’t say I didn’t tell you and do learn the words. Then we can have all-togetherness and the like and I can do that pointing thing and get you to sing and it will be brilliant and we shall laugh like drains except for in the grim bits. Naturally there will be grim happening at some point. I am Alison Moyet, be fair. Then, when the grim is over we can do some idiot dancing and get all loved up on it. Sounds like a top plan xxx ”

Tickets will go onsale at 10am on 8 March.

30 Sep Ireland Cork Opera House
01 Oct Northern Ireland Belfast Waterfront Hall
02 Oct Ireland Dublin Olympia Theatre

04 Oct Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
05 Oct Edinburgh Usher Hall
06 Oct Gateshead The Sage

08 Oct Sheffield City Hall
09 Oct Rhyl Pavilion Theatre
10 Oct Coventry Warwick Arts Centre

12 Oct Northampton Derngate Theatre
13 Oct Ipswich Regents Theatre

15 Oct London Royal Festival Hall
16 Oct Cambridge Corn Exchange
17 Oct Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall

19 Oct Bristol Colston Hall
20 Oct Cardiff St. David’s Hall
21 Oct Brighton The Dome

23 Oct York Barbican Theatre
24 Oct Salford The Lowry
25 Oct Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

27 Oct Nottingham Royal Centre
28 Oct Birmingham Symphony Hall
29 Oct Southend Cliffs Pavilion

31 Oct Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre

Tickets will be available from: www.ticketmaster.ie, www.ticketmaster.co.uk, www.gigsandtours.com and local venue box offices.

There are no plans at this stage for tour dates beyond these – if that changes at some point, we’ll give the heads-up here.

And some new details are beginning to emerge about the tracks: Panoramic strings and icy electronics start proceedings on album-opener ‘Horizon Flame’, before the massive-chorus-meets-jerky-robotic-R&B of ‘Changeling’ kicks in.

‘Apple Kisses’ highlights the versatility of Alison’s singing; having defined dancefloor synth-pop in Yazoo, this track sees her voice equally at home soaring over a snarling bassline that wouldn’t sound out of place tearing from the Fabric sound system.

Equally schooled in club culture is the punchy house/bass squelch of ‘Right As Rain’, whilst the brighter in mood ‘Love Reign Supreme’ recalls Chris & Cosey’s ‘October Love Song’.

The darkly-beautiful, emotionally-fraught torch song ‘A Place To Stay’ precedes the positive and uplifting ‘ Filigree’, which is indicative of the whole album’s cohesive pendulum swing from darkness to light and back again.

The tracks are:

• Horizon Flame
• Changeling
• When I Was Your Girl
• Apple Kisses
• Right As Rain
• Remind Yourself
• Love Reign Supreme
• A Place To Stay
• Filigree
• All Signs Of Life
• Rung By The Tide

Amazon already has the album available on pre-order here

(The album cover will be revealed on Monday 25th Feb)