"We took the same approach that we've taken with every album: Leave New York City," bassist-producer Chris Taylor says of the Brooklyn crew's strategy for following up 2009's Veckatimest. Escaping the urban grid for Texas and Cape Cod, they cut 10 tunes in which anxious riffs and clattering rhythms give way to dreamier vistas. For the first time, singers Daniel Rossen and Ed Droste wrote parts for each other: "It was a new vibe," says Droste, "which was fun."