Dungen / Photo by Carl Abrahamsson Click here to see the full image

Sometimes it takes an artist several albums and as many years to truly find their voice. Of course, whether they're provided with that room to grow by today's love 'em and leave 'em critical mass and crippled music industry is another story. But alas, like fellow overseas mood-masters Sigur Rós, Swedish psych-folkers Dungen have hit a masterful stride nearly a decade on in their career.

September 30 sees the release of 4, their fourth studio LP and second for Kemado. And rest assured, it's a doozy of disparate sounds and divergences from their expected pastiche of power soloing and gentle flower-power vibes.

Band leader Gustav Ejstes dropped that hero to get with the zero, or at least his guitar to romance the piano, his new instrument of choice. And the result is an effort more focused on nuance, texture and rhythm than the band has ever produced. Not that they skim on the solos, thanks to the always-stellar contributions of guitarist Reine Fiske.

But since all you adoring fans will have to wait in silenced suffering for two-plus months to get an earful of 4, we've decided to tease you with two goodies: a new, as-yet-unseen shot of the boys (above) and a list of five prevailing thoughts that emerged from our recent sneak preview of the record. And keep checking back into SPIN.com, because as a further treat, Ejstes himself will be responding in the coming days with his suggestions of what listeners should keep their lobes lubricated for. Or 4, as the case may be:

Read our five thoughts about the new album after the jump >>