The heart of Delta Spirit’s fourth album “Into The Wide” came out of a rat-infested, mostly destroyed room pieced back together by the band in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Delta Spirit emerged with several demos that took on a much darker tone than their previous material. The band headed to Atlanta, Georgia to meet up with producer Ben Allen, which resulted in dark, tension-filled songs that reflect Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash’s more melancholy moments.

“That sense of feeling trapped in our studio and in the city definitely gave the album more of a weight than our previous records,” keys player Kelly Winrich told Consequence of Sound. “It played a big part in this being our moodiest recording yet.” This heaviness and moodiness produced the band’s best record to date.

“Into The Wide” is full of struggle and hardship. Singer Jon Jameson sings of disenchantment with suburban life, the feeling of growing older and the lack of any escape in sight. In many ways, “Into The Wide” represents a coming of age for the band. “Yeah we wait till it’s over / all the weight brings it to your knees / we hide under covers / live our lives on the TV screens / we’re lost and we can’t be found,” Jameson croons on the track “Take Shelter” over piano-driven instrumentation. It tackles the great task of seeing the world as it really is. Broken, dark and ruthless.

Delta Spirit sounds a bit hardened and beat down by the world with some bitterness in the sweet melodies, but the band chooses to face the world head on rather than let it crush them completely. Like most celebrated works of art, part of what makes “Into The Wide” is it’s perseverance through pain and struggle. The heaviness and weariness resonates because it is part of what it means to be human. The sound of a group of people confronted with hardship who continue to stand their ground connects with music listeners at a deep level.

While Delta Spirit has always made unique and beautiful music, this album could be the one they are remembered for, the one passed down to younger generations as an example of what living in a time so often marred by tragedy and apathy looked like.

Listen to the full album below: