The Felice Brothers announced a new album, Valley of Abandoned Songs, with Conor Oberst’s new record label, Million Stars. The roots-rock group’s upcoming LP will feature songs recorded live in a 19th-century church that didn’t fit on 2019’s Undress or 2023’s self-released Asylum on the Hill.
“A few years ago, I started revisiting old demos that had never seen the light of day and recordings that hadn’t found a home on previous albums, and I started thinking of them as the Valley of Abandoned Songs,” said Ian Felice in a BrooklynVegan article. “At a certain point, I realized that I had a particular group of tunes that worked really well as an album, and so I shared it with Conor, along with my idea to post it online, but he immediately texted back that he loved it so much he wanted to start a new record label just to put it out.”
The Felice Brothers’ single “Crime Scene Queen” dropped yesterday. It’s a modern folktale complete with horns and tambourine. The song was built around a single image described in the second verse: “through the palms of pleasure island / an ominous wind began to blow.”
The Felice Brothers play World Cafe Live on July 12th. Tickets available at the WXPN Concerts and Events page. Listen to “Crime Scene Queen” below.