For years, Sydney trio Middle Kids have been reliable purveyors of energized, impassioned alt-rock. In a new era that begins today, they’re pivoting from that sound. The group traveled to the UK to work with producer Jonathan Gilmore from the Dirty Hit stable (he’s done work for the 1975, Rina Sawayama, beabadoobee, et al) for six weeks last year. The first fruits from those sessions arrive today in the form of new single “Bootleg Firecracker.”

The song is an acoustic slow-glide that finds Middle Kids in a far more chilled-out mode than we’re used to hearing. It’s not unlike one of the quieter, more tender offerings on a 1975 album. Singer Hannah Joy calls it “a song about the power, magic, and risk of intimacy.” She continues:

It started out as an up-tempo chorus about dancing, but Tim Fitz (co-producer and bassist) slowed it down, and we came up with the idea of the bootleg firecracker. Fireworks can be dangerous and risky, but there’s something about their explosion of light and heat that brings people together in celebration. I think love is like that.

Listen below.