English indie rockers The Futureheads appear to be angling for a slot on an all-star edition of The Sing-Off with the release of Rant, their fifth studio album and first acapella effort.

Yep, acapella. No instruments, only voices. The band explains their unexpected move:

When you’ve played guitars, drums, keyboards, whatever for many years, you find that your hands start to want to automatically play familiar notes, familiar chords, familiar melodies every time you pick up the instrument. With your voice, that simply doesn’t happen. It’s a fresh start every time. The sky’s the limit and it has been since birth. With this in mind, the a cappella record has us making noise like never before, and hopefully you’ll hear The Futureheads in a new way, too. We’re not turning our back on the ‘Rock’ forever, we just want you to hear us like this, because four-part harmony has been so important in the music we’ve made since day 1.

What excites us about this record is that it’s totally different to anything we’ve ever released in the past. We’ve re-arranged some Futureheads songs from our back catalogue, and we’ve worked on interpretations of some folk classics as well. There are a handful of covers that may surprise you, too.

A trio of those covers come from the pop world and include Sparks’ “The Number One Song In Heaven,” Kelis’ “Acapella” — which they did back in 2010 for BBC’s Radio 1 Live Lounge — and The Black Eyed Peas’ “Meet Me Halfway.”

You might have heard of that last one — “Meet Me Halfway” did reach #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 2009 — but you’ve never heard it done quite like this. A surprising choice, for sure, and surprisingly good. Concentrating on Fergie’s part and ignoring the contributions of her fellow BEP mates helps:

Though Rant represents The Futureheads’ full-fledged foray into acapella, even their 2004 self-titled debut featured a cover. The band’s amped-up take of Kate Bush’s “Hounds Of Love” scored them a #8 UK single.

Purchase The Futureheads – “Meet Me Halfway” (The Black Eyed Peas cover) via iTunes.