As previously reported, Alt-J is set to release This Is All Yours, its follow-up to 2012's excellent debut An Awesome Wave on September 22 via Warner Music.
Now the U.K. trio has revealed the first of 13 tracks. Titled "Hunger of the Pine," the track features a sample from Miley Cyrus' song "4x4" with a repeating dreamy echo of the line, "I'm a female rebel," and ends with two lines in French "Une immense espérance a traversée la terre / Une immense espérance a traversée ma peur," which roughly translates to "A great hope has crossed the earth/ A great hope has crossed my fear."
"Hunger of the Pine" is the first taste of what Alt-J sounds like as a trio since bassist Gwil Sainsbury left the band.
Keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton recently spoke to NPR about the group's new dynamic.
"Having to write songs as a trio rather than a foursome was a daunting prospect for us at first," he told them. "But coming up with this song reassured us that — for want of a better phrase — we were going to be OK."
Of the new Joe Newman-penned track, Unger-Hamilton told NPR that it was "composed entirely of new and spontaneous ideas that arose during writing sessions for the second album. It was written very quickly using some guitar chords and sounds being layered on Ableton, and seemed to signal a bit of a new sound for us. The lyrics mainly suggest the idea that missing someone — pining — can be a physical pain much like hunger."
Listen to "Hunger of the Pine" below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
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