ALBUM PREMIERE: We Set Sail - Feel Nothing

Brisbane indie/emo mainstays We Set Sail have a habit of dragging their heels on things — hell, they're the first to admit it — but their long-awaited second studio full-length, Feel Nothing, is here at last and The Music is super-stoked to be premiering the album ahead of its release this week.

Recorded between April 2014 and April this year, the 10-track effort — which comes three years after the band's debut LP, Rivals — is the culmination of several years' work from the group, though band member Paul Voge tells The Music the group aren't the sort to actively plan things out too far ahead.

"I suppose we never plan anything; we plan on showing up to the shed every week to write or rehearse, and that's about it," Voge told The Music. "And it just kinda snowballs and now we have some momentum and a bunch of songs, which is kind of a bonus. The album is a nice by-product of two years of trying to play music we like because it's fun, with the influence of a bunch of stuff that happened in our lives mixed in.

"And, as you get older, two years feels like a lifetime. Recording stresses me out a lot, so if it hadn't been for James [Jackson, guitarist and engineer] being the one recording it, it probably would not have turned out this way, if we'd done it at all."

On the plus side, if this is the end result from a lack of planning, then We Set Sail should be more than happy to continue winging it, because Feel Nothing is a polished and thoughtful yet earnest, infectious and engaging serve of nostalgia-tinged feelings-rock that deftly recalls both '90s genre vanguards such as Braid and Sunny Day Real Estate as well as latter-day revivalists such as Joie De Vivre, to namedrop a few.

That throwback atmosphere is further served by the not-infrequent appearance of vocal samples taken from 2000 flick High Fidelity, starring John Cusack and Jack Black, to reinforce the 'sad bastard' vibe hanging heavy throughout; indeed, movie samples have been pretty much a key fixture of the emo-and-surrounds genres for decades, through '90s acts such as Jawbreaker past Y2K to bands like Taking Back Sunday and Saves The Day, among others, to more contemporary acts such as Sport and Brave Bird (RIP).

The album was most recently preceded by pretty-dang-delicious taster Reminders Written On Maps, which itself followed Snails and This Could Be The Tragedy We've Been Waiting For in helping to tide over the band's faithful while they wait for the album's official release.

That wait is all but over now, though; Feel Nothing will be released on We Set Sail's Bandcamp page from this Friday, 16 September. Pre-orders are available now.

There's nothing concrete laid down in the pipeline just yet, though the band tell The Music they're planning to play some shows in support of the album in October and November. To find out more, hit the band's Facebook page.