Through the magic of XM Radio I caught the tail end of the most recent pre-release track from Swedish New Wavers The Sounds, and a little research revealed that the corresponding album is coming in just a few weeks! (March 29 as per most sources, though the official site says it’ll ship March 22; weird…)

It’s worth mentioning that 2009’s Crossing the Rubicon snagged this group the No. 10 slot on 2009’s best albums, so the follow up should certainly be something worth looking into. Then again, I am a sucker for almost anything remotely New Wave, and few outfits do it better than The Sounds, so I should be upfront about my bias.

Choosing between the two pre-release tracks was damn-near impossible, so I just went with the one I heard in the car:

‘Something to Die For‘ is a driving track with no shortage of bombast and exhilarating riffs. There are a select few moments of complete silence, which is a cool technique that makes what breaks said silence pack that much more punch. It’s also worth hunting down the other single floating around, ‘Better Off Dead’, which is an equally exciting track.

Something to Die For is shaping up to be a lot of fun, in spite of the apparent death-fixation baggage it’s carrying around.