If Corey Feldman had his way, the world would be dancing in Ray-Bans, hugging holograms, and debating which track on Love Left 2.1 deserves a Pulitzer. That’s the new album-slash-box-set-slash-pop-art-curio he’s hurling into the universe—a sequel to his 1994 debut Love Left and, somehow, also a sequel to every synth line and heartbreak monologue he ever delivered in the background of your favorite VHS tape.
“It’s not only my first sequel in musical form,” Feldman says, with the wide-eyed earnestness of a man who once moonwalked through a Michael Jackson impersonation phase, “it’s also my first box set. And it’s shaped like a heart. A giant heart. Like, two feet wide. You can’t miss it.”
Love Left 2.1 is more than a nostalgia trip—it’s a time capsule with shoulder pads. Inside the box: unreleased demos from the Lost Boys era, songs recovered from moldy two-inch tapes (baked back to life with the help of Don Dokken), and freshly re-recorded versions of tracks that once only existed as muffled background music in B-movie bar scenes.
“There are songs in there that fans tried to Frankenstein together from VHS tapes,” Feldman says. “I figured, let’s give the people what they never actually had: the full soundtrack to their teen angst.”
Feldman traces the concept of a sequel album back to the original Love Left, a record he released during the grunge era as a protest against what he saw as a cultural slide into darkness. “Everything went darker,” he says. “Hip-hop became gangsta, rock went grunge, and Howard Stern was king. It was like, what happened to the love? What happened to the vibe of the ’60s and ’70s?”
So here we are, 30 years later, and Feldman is once again lamenting the spiritual decay of humanity—this time while reuniting with Mickey Thomas of Starship, Curtis Young (son of Dr. Dre), and a selection of vintage synth tones that would make the Dream a Little Dream soundtrack weep.
“I have a big heart on,” Feldman declares without flinching. “I have a big heart on my desk. I have a big heart on stage. Everywhere.”
Somehow, he says that with sincerity and not irony. But then again, Corey Feldman doesn’t do irony. He does liner notes. Dozens of pages of them, in fact, inside 22 Magazine, a TEEN BEAT-style insert that comes with the box set, complete with rare photos of him and Michael Jackson, him and Corey Haim, him and possibly every fringe member of Tower of Power. “Hunt Sales from Bowie’s Tin Machine played drums on one track,” he adds, casually. “Spider from Tower of Power did the sax on another. People have no idea.”
And if the music isn’t enough, the box also includes a documentary, a DVD of rare live performances, and—naturally—a hologram of Feldman himself that pops out of the packaging. “I’m the first artist to do that,” he says, sounding both proud and slightly shocked.
The project is riddled with Easter eggs for the Feld-faithful: new songs that reference old ones, long-lost demos turned into full-blown epics, and even a redux of “By God,” a song originally written in the wake of the Rodney King verdict and now reimagined in the shadow of George Floyd. “It’s tragic that it’s still relevant,” he says. “But that’s why it had to be in there.”
The album’s current single, “Without You,” is Feldman’s bid for radio redemption. It’s also a spiritual sequel to his 1994 ballad “Walk,” which itself was a post-divorce exorcism. “If ‘Walk’ was about moving on from a bad relationship, then ‘Without You’ is about what happens when you finally find the good one,” he says.
As for “Comeback King,” the Michael Jackson-inspired bop he dropped without promotion that somehow went semi-viral? “That was God,” he says. “We didn’t send it to radio. We didn’t have a label. Just put it out there, and people found it. That’s grace.”
Now signed to Sony’s The Orchard, Feldman has plans for a full digital release, new music videos, a sprawling tour (“we’re adding a second leg”), and the kind of merch table that would make KISS blush. Also: no, he’s not done acting, but he’s not in a rush to return to Hollywood, either.
“There’s still a lot of bitterness there,” he admits. “But I’m doing cameos, some voice work. And most importantly, I’m not stuck in the past anymore. I’ve told my story. Now it’s about the future.”
So what does the future look like for Corey Feldman?
Big hearts. Bigger sunglasses. Possibly a top 40 hit. And a legacy box set that manages to be both time machine and therapy session.
“This is the summer of love,” he says, holding up the number 22 tattooed on his hand. “And it’s my lucky number.”
You heard the man. Bring your Ray-Bans.
Watch the interview above and then check out the videos below.
