There’s a moment in Long Distance that all of us recognise. It’s the moment when the lyrics become ever more violent but the music becomes more and more serene. And then Olly’s voice sounds almost heavenly… Storm warnings flicker while the world’s turning…

That’s the moment we’re in right now. The quiet before the storm, but the signs of the storm are already there: increased touring activity (the Australian tour starts later this week), an album recorded (and mixed) and a less active Twitter account, as if someone’s afraid to spill the beans on new album information. Yet, there’s also more press interviews leaking tiny little details of the new album.

THIS is probably one of the more frustrating moments in a music fan’s release cycle. You know there’s new music there, but you can’t hear it. It gets worse / better as soon as any announcements are made (depending on whether they include a single or snippet) and it gets somewhat soothed as soon as live versions of new material pop up on YouTube. (WE’RE COUNTING ON YOU AUSTRALIA!)

And this time it feels worse. When Outbursts was released, I felt like I knew where the guys were headed. I had heard three different songs of the new album live (Sea Change, Paper Heart and Never Stops) and thus I could sort of feel where the guys were going. Or pretend to (Outbursts turned out to have many different layers). For all we know, we might be 4-5 months away from a new album and we don’t know a title and all we can go on are the few YouTube recordings that are out there and the many pictures from the studio recording sessions… And they don’t tell me much. For all we know the vibe in the studio was very different when they recorded songs like Time & Money and Sleeper.

So I have no clue what kind of album we’ll get come late Summer 2013. It’s been over 3 years since Outbursts and that’s a heck of a long time. It’ll be sonically interesting (there’ll be saxophones and banjos and even guitars ). And Little Phil will play some piano like in the good old days! If they’ve done it right, they’re cooking up a right storm that can be turned into a crazy energetic live show and a great record…

And in that case, we really are in the quiet before the storm…