Dialog

If, as the well-worn line goes, you can' know where you're going till you know where you've been, then Paper Rival absolutely know where they're headed with their Photo Finish debut album, Dialog. Refining their trademark warm, Charles Atlas-lean sound into something altogether deeper, richer and more focused, Dialog also finds the Nashville quartet asking the sort of lyrical Big Questions about life, love and the point of it all that make great records timeless. As that album title indicates, this is every bit a dialog between a band and the world around it.

While that foundation is in place throughout Dialog, it's the subtleties - the warmer production; the miles of open space; the upright bass (courtesy, no less, of longtime Johnny Cash sideman Dave Roe); the piano, fiddle and synth accents - that show how far Paper Rival have come in the studio. Lyrically, Paper Rival have also extended their range on Dialog, drawing heavily from real life and pushing themselves out of old comfort zones in the process. Paper Rival have made, without a hint of compromise, an album with the potential to connect on an even broader level. To borrow a theme from Dialog itself: We know where these guys have been, but we can't wait to see where they'll go next.