Listen: Junip - "Line of Fire"

Has it really been three years since we've heard new sounds from the Swedish folk rock trio Junip? Apparently so. And their latest single "Line of Fire" off their forthcoming sophomore record shows exactly what we've been missing: swaggering drum beats and a sparse but not empty, slow burning canvas for Jose Gonzales' lilting vocals. Junip always has this talent for having busy, bustling songs that sound anything but.

There's no doubt that there's a lot of things happening on "Line of Fire", with string sounds and organ alongside rapidly moving drums and guitar and cresting meandering vocals but somehow, it doesn't quite seem overwhelming. There's space for everything to breath and stretch to the most of it ability. "Line of Fire" is one of those tracks whose intricacies reveal themselves only when you hold them under a magnifying glass.

Otherwise it appears rather simple, a very logical step for a band offering up follow up material; close enough to previous sounds to be familiar while not appearing to be a rehashing of already treaded moments. Proof of a band that knows what it's doing; able to shift focus off their complexity of what it's doing to the utter enjoyment of it.

Listen to Junip's return in "Line of Fire":   


Junip's sophomore record is due out in April.