Power-pop icon Tommy Keene will release his first studio album in nearly four years on June 4 as part of a new deal with spinART Records. Titled "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down," the 12-song follow-up to 1998's "Isolation Party" (Matador) will feature such guests as former Wilco member Jay Bennett on keyboards. According to Keene, Gin Blossoms members Robin Wilson and Jesse Valenzuela also supplied backing vocals to a number of tracks.

"I suppose the centerpiece of the record is the 17-minute mini opera, 'The Final Hour'," Keene tells Billboard.com. "It tells the story of two lovers who meet and carry on a long distance romance. One of them is unfaithful and ends up dying in a plane crash -- it was written before 9/11, of course." Other songs slated for the disc -- which was recorded in Tempe, Ariz., and in and around Chicago -- include "Begin Where We End," "The Man Without a Soul," "Technicolor," and "How Do You Really Say Hello?"

Keene, a notorious road dog, also promises a U.S. tour in the summer and is currently plotting out an itinerary. Since his last album of original material, the artist issued the live set "Showtunes" in September 2001 via Parasol.