Unreleased Arthur Russell Songs Compiled for New Album: Listen to “The Boy With the Smile”

A new album will compile nine previously unreleased Arthur Russell tracks. (Yes, there are even more.) The record, Picture of Bunny Rabbit, is out June 23 via Audika, and you can listen to the lead track below. Like the rest of the record, “The Boy With a Smile” was recorded in 1985 or 1986 at Battery Sound in New York, with additional material recorded in his East Village apartment. It was previously available as a live recording.

Picture of Bunny Rabbit comprises tracks from completed masters found on two test pressings, one provided by Russell’s mother and sister, according to the record’s Bandcamp description. The title track was written for a friend’s pet rabbit.

Russell’s music has been extensively collected and reissued since his death in 1992, at which time he had released just one solo album, World of Echo. Many of his posthumous albums have become retrospective classics. The latest to comprise significant unreleased material was 2019’s Iowa Dream.