Go-Go’s frontwoman Belinda Carlisle has announced plans to release her first full-length studio album since Wilder Shores in 2017. Once Upon a Time in California, which is due out August 29, is a 10-track collection of cover tunes paying tribute to the pop music that informed the singer’s California upbringing and “shaped her musical identity.”

The album is described as “a deeply personal journey through the golden sounds of [Belinda’s] youth.

Once Upon a Time in California includes Carlisle’s renditions of songs written and/or popularized by Dionne Warwick, Gordon Lightfoot, Harry Nilsson, The Association, The Hollies, Jim Croce, and The Carpenters.

The album begins with a version of the classic Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” which was a 1963 hit for Warwick. Carlisle’s rendition of the 1974 Hollies hit “The Air That I Breathe” has been released digitally as the first advance single from Once Upon a Time in California.

Three songs on the album were previously available on earlier releases by Carlisle. They are her versions of the Carpenters hit “Superstar,” Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind,” and the Youngboods classic “Get Together.”

The album can be pre-ordered now and will be available on CD, vinyl LP, and via digital formats. The LP will be available on standard black vinyl, colored vinyl, and as a picture disc.

Carlisle’s most recent release was the 2023 EP Kismet, which featured five songs written by Diane Warren.

Carlisle shared some reflections about the inspiration behind the new album.

“I was born and raised in California at a time when music was an important part of Californian culture,” the 66-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee said. “I lived and breathed music, it was my great escape—a refuge of fantasy and imagination. Every day after school and when it was summer vacation, I would listen and sing along to the music on the radio for the entire day. Always fantasizing about being a singer myself, one day.

She continued, “This collection of songs is the best representation of what I loved back then that I could think of—listening to it brings back so many memories of a time and a California that doesn’t really exist anymore. That’s not meant to sound like a bad thing, it’s just different—there was an innocence and energy back then that was unique and magical. Things I doubt will ever be felt in quite the same way again. Here’s to the California of my dreams.”

This past April and May, Carlisle reunited with The Go-Go’s to play a series of concerts. These included performances at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California, and the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, California.

Carlisle has a brief solo European trek dubbed the Heavenly Hits tour scheduled for the late summer. The outing kicks off August 31 in Bochum, Germany, and runs through a September 13 show in Manchester, U.K.

(Photo by Christie Goodwin)