It could be presumed that the moody direction of Tedious & Brief’s arduously-prepared SonderLP is the artistic result of pent-up angst and exasperation. And the fact is, that’s a pretty accurate conjecture.

For an album three painstaking years in the making, it’s fitting, then, that the Nashville-based/Chicago-bred tandem of Jamie Jacobsen and Parker Moore jumpstarts this journey with a lead single titled “Relief.” A brooding, hooky, electro power-pop blitz, layered with distorted synths and self-actualization.

“‘Relief’ was born out of a realization that we’d been playing this ‘role’ in our lives for so long that we struggled to distinguish the difference between our authentic and made-up selves,” Jamie confesses. “This type of living could only last so long before, we hit a breaking point and admitted it was necessary to confront this dissonance in ourselves. This song is the product of hitting that moment of self-honesty.”

In an effort to evolve its suburban alt-pop approach into something more expansive, Tedious & Brief enlisted Aaron Marsh of seminal indie outfit Copeland to produce the project as a whole, including “Relief.”

“Aaron was very instrumental in helping us create our most expansive, intentional and cohesive work to date,” Jamie says. “We faced a lot of obstacles over these past few years that challenged us to dive deeper artistically and trust our gut more. Considering Aaron’s ability to create a soundscape that’s both lush and raw, dreamy and intimate, he was the perfect person to get us where we wanted to go with this new batch of music.”

Second single from Sonder coming next month.