Acclaimed Brooklyn artist Bird Streets has returned with Lagoon (Sparkle Plenty/Deko), 12 songs about separation, rumination, regret, and recurrence. For his second album under the Bird Streets name, John Brodeur has widely expanded on the project’s collaborative foundation, enlisting production by Pat Sansone (Wilco), Michael Lockwood (Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple), and Zach Jones (Sting) and Oscar Albis Rodriguez (A Great Big World), plus guest appearances from the likes of Aimee Mann, Ed Harcourt, John Davis(Superdrag), Jody Stephens (Big Star), and an array of top session players. With mixing split between Sansone and Grammy winner Michael Brauer (Coldplay, John Mayer), and mastering by Grammy nominee Pete Lyman (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton), Lagoon is an enormous step forward from an artist who has been hailed for his evocative storytelling and keen attention to craft.

Bird Streets was first conceived as Brodeur’s return to a band format after a lengthy stint as a solo artist. The new point of view proved to be artistically freeing, moving Brodeur to officially adopt the moniker as his 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 Cautious Clay. Singles “Betting on the Sun” and “Direction” received nationwide airplay; the music video for “Direction” racked up thousands of views; tours with iconic indie rocker Juliana Hatfield and pop-folk artist Alana Davis followed, as did a groovy non-album single, “Come On.”