Today would have been Gil Scott-Heron's 65th birthday, and XL have announced their plans to release a posthumous Heron album, Nothing New. During the sessions for 2008's I'm New Here, Scott-Heron accompanied himself on piano on a number of stripped down versions of his old songs. Six months after his death in 2011, producer Richard Russell revisited those recordings and compiled them into Nothing New. It'll be available on limited edition 12" vinyl, and will be released on April 19 for Record Store Day.

Below, listen to "Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)", which originally appeared on his 1980 album with Brian Jackson, and the interludes "Enjoying Yourself" and "The On/Off Switch". Read Russell's sleeve notes at Scott-Heron's website. 

Read our Afterword on Gil Scott-Heron here and an oral history here.

Nothing New: 

Side A:

01 Did You Hear What They Said
02 Better Days Ahead
03 Household Name (Interlude)
04 Your Daddy Loves You
05 Changing Yourself (Interlude)
06 Pieces of a Man
07 Enjoying Yourself (Outro)

Side B:

01 Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)
02 Before I Hit the Bottom (Interlude)
03 95 South (All the Places We've Been)
04 The Other Side
05 The On/Off Switch (Interlude)
06 Blue Collar
07 On Bobby Blue Bland (Outro)

Listen to the original version of "Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)":