Ben Lee Releases New Album, 'A Mixtape From Ben Lee'

Australian songsmith Ben Lee has been working on one album for many years now -- and now you can finally own it. Lee released A Mixtape From Ben Lee yesterday (Feb. 24) on his Bandcamp page (stream it below).

The new record has been a pet project of Lee's for some time now. He explained the thoughts behind the album in a recent statement:

The album began as an exploration of songwriting. I decided to write songs for different voices and invite these singers to perform them. My dear friend Sam Spiegel (Squeak E Clean) offered to produce the record, and we began working on the collaboration in earnest in 1998. Over the next seven years we continued to record intermittently. All kinds of wonderful musicians came by and offered their help.

The new album features appearances from Zooey Deschanel, Ben Folds, Azure Ray, Sean Lennon and a bunch of others. Lee said that recording the album took seven years, then the songs sat on his hard drive until he finally got the chance to release them. The LP is pay-what-you-want with a minimum of $1, and the proceeds go to the Q'Ero Project.

This announcement comes along with the news that Lee just signed a major label deal with Warner Bros. His next single, "Big Love," comes out on April 18, a.k.a. Record Store Day. His follow-up to Mixtape, Love Is the Great Rebellion, will hit the streets later this year.