Long-time favorite British weirdos, alt-J, announced the follow-up to their 2012 debut, the stellar Mercury-Prize-winning An Awesome Wave last week. The lead single to the forthcoming This is All Yours, “Hunger of the Pines”, continues to lead with singer Joe Newman’s creaky vocals, glitchy electronics, and hip-hop-esque rhythms and staves off fears of how the group would fare with the (amicable) exit of bassist Gwil Sainsbury.
Sure, functioning as a trio is actually a little more fitting for a band named after the keyboard shortcut for the delta symbol (∆—now you know!), but any changes to the winning line-up that produced such an innovative sound and a great, start-to-finish full-length with Wave understandably bring on trepidation for us fans. It seems like we’ve been left in good hands though if this track’s any indication. It starts off creepily meek and builds into the bands trademark, sweeping epic-ness and does not disappoint.
Give it a listen.
This is All Yours is due out late September but can be pre-ordered directly from the band along with some pretty cool looking tees and via iTunes…sans t-shirts.
Photo by Gabriel Green.
