On Friday, Circles Around The Sun revealed that their forthcoming self-titled studio album will arrive on March 13th, 2020. The new album marks the third full-length release from the fan-favorite act and features the final recordings of late founding member and guitarist, Neal Casal.
The seven-track collection was tracked at legendary recording engineer Jim Scott‘s Southern California studio just one week prior to Casal tragically taking his own life this past summer. Scott also served as the producer on Neal’s first solo album, 1995’s Fade Away Diamond Time, meaning he worked on both the first and last official recordings by the late artist.
Circles Around The Sun – New Album Announcement Video
[Video: Circles Around The Sun]
In a note left behind by Casal, he requested that the album be completed and for the band to continue in his absence. The band has since made the decision to honor those wishes. For the immediate future, the band will be comprised of original members Adam MacDougall (keys), Dan Horne (bass) and Mark Levy (drums) without a permanent guitarist filling Neal’s seat. Instead, they’ll enlist a rotating cast of guitarists for their live shows. Eric Krasno was the first guest guitarist to step in with CATS, performing with the band throughout their fall tour. The band will close out 2019 with a three-night New Year’s run in Colorado featuring Scott Metzger (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead) on guitar.
“We love this music. The three of us—Dan, Mark, and myself—we really love it and really don’t want to stop playing it,” says MacDougall. “I don’t want our decision to come off in any other way than based on the fact we really, really love this band so much. We would always sit around and talk about the dream: the feeling of what it was like to be a teenager and start your own band. It’s your band, with everyone pulling their own weight, doing their part. This band felt like being in high school again.”
Related: Remembering Neal Casal’s Final Circles Around The Sun Show At LOCKN’ [Photos/Video]
Circles Around The Sun will begin the album’s rollout with the “12 Days of CATS,” which will see them post various content to their social media accounts each day in the leadup to the release of the album’s first single and accompanying music video on Christmas Day.
See below for a full Circles Around The Sun tracklist and a list of the band’s upcoming live shows. For more information and ticketing details, head here.
Circles Around The Sun’s collaboration with Joe Russo, “Get It Right the First Time”, was just included in the December edition of Live For Live Music’s Monthly Mix Spotify playlist. You can listen to the full Monthly Mix below or head here to find out why we chose each song.