Neil Hamburger to Release New Album 'Seasonal Depression Suite'

The curtain rings down on 2023, with the proverbial “Opus You Didn’t Know You Were Waiting For” — a new musical from Erik Paparozzi and Gregg Turkington — Neil Hamburger Presents Seasonal Depression Suite, out November 17th!

Over the past two decades, Turkington’s conception of the rotten existence of “America’s Funnyman” Neil Hamburger has evolved in unexpected ways. On 2019’s Still Dwelling project, Turkington first collaborated with arranger/producer Erik Paparozzi, whose sensibilities aligned perfectly with Turkington’s own musical obsessions.

Seasonal Depression Suite is filtered through the lens of various guests stuck in a perfectly average chain-hotel during the holiday season, wallowing in self-pity and paranoia, re-living personal catastrophes both real and imagined, or simply trying to use the hotel vending machine.

The musical tapestry woven by Paparozzi and Turkington draws from the stage musicals, pop vocal albums, film scores, rock concept albums, new wave mini-masterpieces, and singer-songwriter epics that have captured their imaginations since childhood, in pitch-perfect support of their fictitious hotel guests and their tormented concerns.

To sing these parts, a once-in-a-lifetime all-star cast was assembled — including Neil Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House, Fleetwood Mac), Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow), Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, acclaimed singer/performance artist Puddles Pity Party, voice actress Natalie Peyser, J.P. Hasson (Pleaseeasaur), enigmatic vocalist (and Frank Sinatra’s granddaughter) A.J. Lambert, Paparozzi himself and, of course, Neil Hamburger.

A mordant masterpiece vocalized by covers expert Puddles Pity Party acts as the first single from Seasonal Depression Suite. On "Maids Can't Mop Up Memories", his smooth baritone is the perfect match for the desultory deep-chamber production, with the song’s pitch-black humor cutting sharply through the horror.

Seasonal Depression Suite provides another entry in the sprawling satirical critique of America that Turkington has been engaged in with his multifarious enterprises and collaborations since the early '90s. Available from Drag City Records on November 17th!