Neutral Milk Hotel have announced they’ll release a vinyl box set that explores their entire career. The release, titled The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel, contains the American group’s 1996 LP On Avery Island and 1998’s In the Areoplane Over the Sea, along with live recordings, unreleased songs, alternative takes and more. The box set will release on Feb. 24 via Merge, and in celebration of the project’s release, the band has shared a new unreleased cut titled “Little Birds” digitally for the first time today.

According to a press release, the song was written by Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Magnum in 1998 and was played later that same day at a friend’s party. The release shared Magnum wrote the track following a confrontation with a street preacher who was spreading hatred against LGBTQ+ individuals in Athens, Ga. Magnum and a few others returned his spewing negativity until he eventually tucked his tail and left. The song was not played again for a decade but was eventually recorded live at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, N.Y., during their 2014 reunion tour.

The box set follows a 2011 limited-edition box set, which Magnum curated and released via Neutral Milk Hotel Records, an operation run by his mother. The Merge box set marks the collection’s first digital release and features an expanded 2LP version of On Avery Island,  an exclusive 12″ picture disc of Live at Jittery Joe’s (recorded in 1997) and the “Holland, 1945” b/w “Engine” 7″ on black vinyl with brand new artwork. The set also features a remastered 7″ version of 1994’s Everything Is, which has been pressed into 10″ vinyl as an extended EP. As for the new songs from that era of creative output, the box set will feature: “You’ve Passed,” “Unborn,” and “Where You’ll Find Me Now.” The Ferris Wheel on Fire 10″ EP also includes the addition of “My Dream Girl Don’t Exist.”

See the full track listing and listen to “Little Birds” below.

TRACKLIST:

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
1. “King of the Carrot Flowers Pt. 1”
2. “King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3”
3. “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”
4. “Two-Headed Boy”
5. “Fool”
6. “Holland, 1945”
7. “Communist Daughter”
8. “Oh Comely”
9. “Ghost”
10. “[untitled]”
11. “Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2”

On Avery Island
1. “Song Against Sex”
2. “You’ve Passed”
3. “Someone Is Waiting”
4. “A Baby For Pree”
5. “Marching Theme”
6. “Where You’ll Find Me Now”
7. “Avery Island/April 1st”
8. “Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone”
9. “Three Peaches”
10. “Naomi”
11. “April 8th
12. “Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye”

Ferris Wheel On Fire
1. “Oh Sister” (1995)
2. “Ferris Wheel On Fire” (1993)
3. “Home” (1992)
4. “April 8th” (1992)
5. “I Will Bury You In Time” (1994)
6. “Engine” (1993)
7. “A Baby For Pree/Glow Into You” (1995)
8. “My Dream Girl Don’t Exist (Live)” [1992]

Everything Is
1. “Everything Is”
2. “Here We Are (For W. Cullen Hart)”
3. “Unborn”
4. “Tuesday Moon”
5. “Ruby Bulb”
6. “Snow Song”
7. “Aunt Eggma Blow Torch”

Little Birds
1. “Little Birds (Live)” [2014]
2. “Little Birds (Studio Demo)” [1998]

You’ve Passed / Where You’ll Find Me Now
1. “You’ve Passed (Alternate Version)”
2. “Where You’ll Find Me Now (Alternate Version)”

Live At Jittery Joe’s
1. “Intro”
2. “A Baby For Pree”
3. “Two-Headed Boy”
4. “I Will Bury You In Time”
5. “Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone”
6. “Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2”
7. “I Love How You Love Me”
8. “Engine”
9. “Naomi”
10. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2”
11. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3”
12. “Oh Comely”