BIG STIR RECORDS proudly presents a new, never-before heard full-length album from legendary NYC power pop pioneers SORROWS, the third and final chapter of a legacy that's only grown since their late '70s debut. PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW, recorded in a one-night whirlwind session in 1981 and capturing the band at their fiery peak, includes the indie hit preview single “Out Of My Head” along with ten more previously unreleased Sorrows originals and three choice covers. The album sees release at last on February 28 on Vinyl, CD and Streaming and is up for pre-order/pre-save now.

The story of SORROWS – ARTHUR ALEXANDER (vocals, guitar), JOEY COLA (vocals, guitar) RICKY STREET (vocals, bass) and JETT HARRIS (drums) – is breathtakingly brief, but it has taken nearly five decades to play out. Rising from the ashes of the revered POPPEES in the late '70s, they were blending hooks and harmonies with punk rock energy on stages like CBGB and Max's Kansas City just as the new wave and power pop sounds were about to break through to the mainstream. Their 1980 debut TEENAGE HEARTBREAK showed what they could do, and the timing was right for a followup to catapult them to the same stages as The Cars, The Knack, and Cheap Trick, or earn a place among the genre-defining likes of 20/20 and The Plimsouls. History, and the band's label, had other ideas, and the 1981 debacle of their overproduced-against-the-band's-will second album nearly ended the band. A wave of defiant anger coupled with an undimmed gift for pop songcraft fueled the band's writing and onstage energy for a time before their ultimate breakup, but that final phase of SORROWS – along with a clutch of terrific unreleased songs – seemed lost to the back pages of rock history.

Things began to change forty years later as, on the opposite coast in LA, the band's ARTHUR ALEXANDER found himself back in the game as a solo performer with his acclaimed albums ONE BAR LEFT and ...steppin' out! (and his relentless live shows with Arthur Alexander Band) picking up right where he'd left off. But Arthur and his SORROWS bandmates had been pursuing the rights to the material on the ill-fated LOVE TOO LATE album all along, and finally having secured them (as well as the session masters), recreated the album as they had envisioned it, leading to the surprise 2021 release of LOVE TOO LATE... the real album. Much to the delight of fans old and new (and critics worldwide), it was a revelation. The record was quite literally been set straight, and it was clear to all who listened that SORROWS should have been huge.

But the story wasn't complete then, any more than it had been in 1981, and we flash back to that year to tell the tale of the final chapter, now soon to be heard in all its raucous splendor on the aptly-titled PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW. Because our heroes, stung by the label interference that had tried (and failed) to remake their music into bland Top 40 fodder, had retrenched to a sound that was, if anything, a more raw and powerful brand of rock and roll than ever before. It's crystal clear that the experience had given them something to prove, and you can hear that immediately when the lead track “Never Mind” comes blasting out of your speakers, with Alexander defiantly declaring “Never mind, never mind, never mind, just leave me alone! Never mind, never mind, never mind, I'll work it out on my own!” It's well-earned fury at the machinations of the music industry and thus as relevant now as then, but as the album progresses you can hear that same fire fueling all of Arthur's originals: there are seven undiscovered gems from his pen, including the single “Out Of My Head”, the heartfelt, in-the-moment elegy for John Lennon “Cricket Man”, the rockabilly-infused scorcher “Let Me Know”, the revved-up Buddy Holly tribute “Kiss You Later” and the driving “Too Much Love” which he describes as “classic Sorrows”.

But PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW is very much the band's album, and very much a singular and cohesive record. Far from a posthumous collection of outtakes or leftovers, it's a document of its time and created very much on purpose in one single night in 1981. The band, still stalking the stages of NYC while smarting from their treatment on the Love Too Late album and feeling a need to reclaim their identity, reconnected with Mark Milchman, who'd co-produced their debut, and booked into the iconic Mediasound Studios where their initial magic was born, for an all-night marathon session. “We just wanted to play a bunch of new songs we had been working on and rock the demons out of our system,” recalls Arthur. “We went in late in the evening, set up our amps, drums and mics in the middle of Studio A – ‘The Church’ – all out in the open, as if we were on stage, then we plugged in and just let ‘er rip! By the time we left the studio, the sun was up, and we had our next album!”

In addition to capturing the band firing on all cylinders as a performing unit, the session yielded terrific new originals from Ricky Street (“What A Good Boy”, “Just One Fool To Blame”, and “Love Ain't Nothing (Without You)”) and Joey Cola (“That's Your Problem”), heard here for the first time. And the covers show the band uniting in their mutual love for the music that inspired them. Their takes on classics by The Stones and Eddie Cochran are jaw-dropping one-take wonders that could only be delivered by a band with something to prove, and the closing cover of The Pirates' “You Don't Own Me” is positively blistering (and, given what SORROWS had just been through, perhaps the record's definitive statement of purpose).

PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW is a bit of a miracle on more than one level. It's too inspired and rambunctious to be called bittersweet, but it just might be the album the band was meant to create from the beginning. “When I started this band, part of my musical vision was of a band juxtaposing a bit of a 'down', melancholic vibe, with an uplifting, relentless, kick-your-teeth-in drive, energy and aggression,” recalls Arthur. And while he, Joey, Ricky and Jett might have wished the tale would end differently, the magic preserved here is a pure realization of that vision. It's a monster of a swan song, and Arthur's 21st century mix of this nothing-to-lose, go-for-broke 1981 session packs more punch than any record label would have countenanced at the time of its recording. It's sweet indeed, and at long last SORROWS can lay claim to a trilogy of albums worthy of their talents, and a legacy that will resonate for many, many years to come.

Big Stir Records is proud to announce our first new single for 2025: “Out Of My Head” from legendary late '70s/early '80s NYC power pop pioneers SORROWS! And if it feels like a vintage blast of near-punk pop energy from the band's heyday, that's because it is: the single is the first teaser for a new, never-before-heard album recorded by the band at the fiery peak of their powers in 1981, newly mixed by founding member ARTHUR ALEXANDER and coming your way in February on Vinyl, CD and Streaming. “Out Of My Head” sees release January 24 and is up for pre-order/pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/sorrows-oomh

The legacy of SORROWS has only, and deservedly, grown in recent years, through both the solo success of key member ARTHUR ALEXANDER (with his albums ONE BAR LEFT and most recently 2023's acclaimed ...steppin' out!) and the band's own release of LOVE TOO LATE... THE REAL ALBUM in 2021 as a belated but intoxicating correction of the label-enforced overproduction of their second album from 1981. That vindication of the band's CBGB-honed rock and pop instincts rescued a brilliant set of songs and quite literally set the record straight on SORROWS' rightful place in power pop history, leaving fans and new admirers alike thrilled to finally hear what they'd been missing, and wishing there was more.

And there was: now comes the news that not only has there been more all along, but it represents the definitive lineup – ARTHUR ALEXANDER (vocals, guitar), JOEY COLA (vocals, guitar) and RICKY STREET (vocals, bass) and JETT HARRIS (drums) -- at their raw, rocking best. “Out Of My Head”, with its rowdy vocal and revved up blend of punk energy and pop classicism, is emblematic of what can be expected on the new and final album in the vital SORROWS discography. Even in a year destined to be remembered for essential new and rediscovered career highs from guitar pop legends – the 2025 Big Stir and SpyderPop Records release slate includes new treasures from 20/20, The Spongetones, The Flashcubes, The Bablers and more – the new album from SORROWS stands out. Aptly entitled PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW, it's a vital document of a band reclaiming their identity in one whirlwind, one-night 1981 recording session, and presenting it to you in 2025 as proof that they've always deserved to be classed among the greats. It all starts with “Out Of My Head”, with more news to come very, very soon.