Dowsing is officially based in Chicago, but the individual members of the quartet are currently spread across four different states. So the decision to title their fifth proper album, their first new studio effort in four years, No One Said This Would Be Easy, feels like an honest assessment of the challenge of creating music together when geography is an enemy. “It Was Easy,” the first track released from the forthcoming album belies no strain, though. It’s a brisk, brash emo number that goes down nicely.

No One Said This Would Be Easy, the new album from Dowsing, is scheduled for release in December.