On Thursday, May 30, The Felice Brothers released their new single, "Flowers By The Roadside," from their upcoming album 'Valley of Abandoned Songs'. The album is set to be released on June 28 via Conor Oberst's label imprint, Million Stars.
Valley of Abandoned Songs features recordings from the band's 2019 album Undress and their 2023 release 'Asylum On The Hill'.
"There's a tightrope walk between light and dark in these songs, between the magical wonder of existence and the ever-present sense of impending doom that comes with it. This album is my way of reconciling those things. A lot of these songs are amalgamations," guitarist Ian Felice explained when asked what to expect from the new album.
He added that the settings can change from verse to verse and scene to scene. He said he does not necessarily know who these characters are or where they come from, but they all evoke something real in him.
Ian also shared the song was written on a bleak winter day to teleport to summer. He shared that midway through the first and only take of the song, keyboardist James Felice walked across the room, picked up a toy glockenspiel, and plucked out a melody that had occurred to him.
The song was recorded in 2018 in their old cinderblock studio outside Hudson, NY.
'Flowers By The Roadside' was released with an official music video directed by Tiller Russell.
Paste Magazine commended Ian Felice's "sugar-sweet" vocals and called the song "one of the catchiest songs you'll hear all week."
Furthermore, American Songwriter praised their "fascinating, articulate, never pretentious wordplay." Jon Pareles of the New York Times called the album's lead single, "To-Do List," "romping honky-tonk existentialism."
Valley of Abandoned Songs tracklist includes:
1) Crime Scene Queen
2) Flowers By The Roadside
3) New York By Moonlight
4) Younger As The Days Go By
5) So Long John
6) Black is My True Love's Hair
7) Raccoon, Rooster And Crow
8) Stranger's Arms
9) Birdies
10) Tomorrow Is Just A Dream Away
11) Let Me Ride Away With The Horsemen
12) It's Midnight And The Doves Are In Tears
13) To Be A Papa
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