Bird Streets to Issue Digital Deluxe Version of Album 'Lagoon'

When John Brodeur began his recording career in the early 2000s, he never imagined he would someday have his most rewarding musical experiences – working with members of Superdrag, Wilco, Big Star, and Jellyfish, artists he greatly admired – while struggling through one of the most difficult periods in his personal life.

But that has thus far been the story of his project Bird Streets, whose first album was released concurrently with Brodeur’s separation from his wife of more than a decade, and whose latest, Lagoon, plays almost as a concept album about the emotional weight of divorce and regret.

Released in November by newly minted Los Angeles label Sparkle Plenty, Lagoon is as personal a statement as you’re likely to hear this or any year–a rollercoaster emotional ride from “one of [the] prime architects of present-day rock” (Americana Highways), bolstered by masterful production and an array of guest appearances, including Ed Harcourt and Aimee Mann.

On June 30, Lagoon will be reissued as a deluxe digital edition with an additional eight tracks, including two new songs: the Patrick Sansone-produced “California High,” and “What In The World,” featuring Sting drummer Zach Jones. The re-release will be accompanied by a series of solo live engagements in the Northeast U.S. and Sweden. 

“California High” (available June 16) marries layers of soft-strummed acoustic guitars to a lyric that could either be about seasonal depression or impostor syndrome, with a bridge section that takes a surprising leap into prog-adjacent territory. Recorded in 2019 at Nashville’s famed Creative Workshop, during the first Lagoon sessions, the track finds Sansone in full multitask mode, serving as producer and mixer, plus playing bass, additional guitars, piano, vibraphone, and singing backing vocals.

With pedal steel by session legend Jim Hoke (Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney), the windswept folk-pop of “California High” would sit comfortably alongside Harvest-era Neil Young, America, or The Thrills. In another universe, it might have been Lagoon’s lead single, but Brodeur shelved it because “it didn’t fit the narrative. Had it been a 15-song album–which it easily could have been–this would have gone on side one.”

“What In The World,” the other new track here, is a groovy meditation on writer’s block that was written in Los Angeles during sessions for the first Bird Streets LP. It’s like Paul Simon fronting a ’90s LA alt-pop band, says Brodeur. Produced by Brodeur and mixed by Sansone, it features the rhythm section of Zach Jones and Oscar Albis Rodriguez, who also helmed three of Lagoon’s tracks together.

Among the expanded release’s other revelations are an early recording of album opener “Sleeper Agent” that imagined the song as a Death Cab For Cutie-esque indie-rocker, and a demo of “Disappearing Act” that only hints at the Southern soul sound of the final version. Also included are acoustic versions of “Sleeper Agent” and “Unkind,” and alternate mixes of “Leave No Trace” (by Michael Brauer) and “Machine” (by Sansone). The original album was mastered by Pete Lyman, while the bonus material was mastered by Jonathan Jetter.

Both epic and intimate, often simultaneously, Lagoon has been called "sublime" (Coachella Valley Weekly), "luxurious and literate" (Rock & Roll Truth), and "an emotional tour de force" (Glide). For his second album under the Bird Streets name, Brodeur widely expanded on the project’s collaborative foundation, enlisting contributions from Mann, Harcourt, Sansone (Wilco), Michael Lockwood (Susanna Hoffs), John Davis (Superdrag), Grammy-winning mixer Michael Brauer (Coldplay), and the great Jody Stephens (Big Star), among others. Lagoon is the first album release for Lockwood’s Sparkle Plenty label, distributed by Deko Entertainment/Warner. The original album is available on CD and audiophile double-vinyl, as well as all DSPs.

ABOUT BIRD STREETS

Originally hailing from upstate New York, John Brodeur has been releasing his unique brand of melodic alternative/indie-pop for more than 20 years. Brodeur adopted the Bird Streets moniker as his personal nom de guerre with the release of a self-titled 2018 LP on Omnivore Recordings.

That album, produced by indie-pop hero Jason Falkner (Beck, St. Vincent, Daniel Johnston), was a refreshing blast of classic-yet-modern melodic rock that received accolades from PopMatters (“a rock solid power-pop gem”), The Deli (“timeless and honest”), and NPR Music, which named Bird Streets a Slingshot Artist alongside then-emerging talents like Phoebe Bridgers and The Beths. 

photo credit:  Shervin Lainez

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