The espionage theme, particularly the idea of living a double life, was the basis for 'The Betrayer', a kick-in-the-gut rocker King wrote for her brand-new, stunning album Junior. And like a tantalizing spy novel that's full of surprises, Junior delivers twists-and-turns: lyrically from exuberance and anger to heartbreaking melancholy; and sonically from experimental pieces to accessible pop. While there is some of the dazzling musicianship King has been renowned for, Junior showcases her further maturation as a well-rounded artist that defies categorization and expectations.

"I never really made records for other people," she says. "I've never been able to, though if I could I'd be a much richer person. For example there's none of the 'guitar tapping' that I'm known for. There not a single bit of it on the record except for a half a second on 'The Hoopers of Hudspeth'".

As with her previous album, 2008's Dreaming of Revenge, Junior was produced by Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris) and recorded at his studio in Kingston, New York. But in contrast to that record, which was marked by deep textures and layers as well as unusual instrumentation, Junior was specifically made with only three musicians in mind—in this case, King, multi-instrumentalist Dan Brantigan and drummer Jordan Perlson. The result was something more direct."Prior to this I would have written a lot in the studio and played all the instruments myself," King says. "This time, I really leaned on Dan and Jordan to help shape the songs and help me get the record written."

The nearly-D.I.Y. aesthetic employed by King can be found on a couple of Junior's tracks starting with the album’s punkish 'Falling Day' and the noisy 'Death Head'. "I was dragging this little ukelele around with me," she says of the former song. "I tuned it weird and I came up with this one riff. The lyrics are basically nonsense. It's a kind of rumination on a weird dream I had and imagery from that. It's also got all these strange sounds that Dan came up with."

Longtime fans may be surprised to hear a different side of King with the dance rock of 'Spit It Back In My Mouth'. "I really wanted that to be my Cure song," she says. "Like how the Cure would write these really happy, jangly songs and the lyrics would be utterly depressing. When I came up with that little groove, I thought this is way too happy, so I changed it to make people depressed."

Tracklisting

1. The Betrayer
2. Spit It Back In My Mouth
3. Everything Has An End, Even Sadness
4. Falling Day
5. The Hoopers Of Hudspeth
6. My Nerves That Committed Suicide
7. I've Enjoyed As Much As I Can Stand
8. Hallucinations From My Poisonous German Streets
9. Death Head
10. Sloan Shore
11. Sunnyside