Both Kevin Devine, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter, and Andy Hull, frontman of Atlanta band Manchester Orchestra and sole member of Right Away, Great Captain!, have been around longer, sold more records, and played bigger venues than their collaborative side project, Bad Books. In 2010, the longtime friends (and the rest of Manchester Orchestra) partnered up to workshop one another's ideas under a new moniker. Instead, they wound up writing material that sounded like reworkings of their respective catalogs: alt-leaning indie folk, deceptively mopey rock, and heartstring-tugging acoustic songs. After a seven-year break, Bad Books return with III, the album that finally articulates who, and what, this band is about.

Created during scattered sessions over the past two years, III fills the gaps left open by 2010's self-titled debut and its 2012 follow-up, II. The first album grappled with religious ideology and deep-seated regrets; the latter explored fictional stories through self-reflective characters. Both zigzagged abruptly, swerving from peppy alt-rock to barren ballad without much regard for flow. Devine and Hull wrote catchy songs independently, but-perhaps as a symptom of the distance between them-their collaboration struggled to find a singular focus. (Even they admitted as much.) Now they're on the same page.

Shedding the keyboardist, bassist, and drummer of their previous incarnation, Devine, Hull, and Manchester Orchestra member Robert McDowell use a few acoustic guitars, a bare piano, and the occasional keyboard to set their scenes. Recording with just three members results in intimate, hushed storytelling reminiscent of Devine and Hull's early days sharing the stage-so honed in and aware of the other's movements that onlookers fell silent, entranced. The stripped-back approach allows "UFO," a song about suicidal ideation, to swell with layered vocal harmonies just as the lyrics turn confessional. By comparison, the emotional nine-minute closer "Army" sounds like an explosion, slowly building the acoustic instruments to a breaking point, when the protagonist, a soldier, takes his own life.

TRACKLIST

1. Wheel Well
2. UFO
3. Myths Made Plain
4. Lake House
5. I Love You, I'm Sorry, Please Help Me, Thank You
6. Neighborhood
7. I Wrote It Down For You
8. Left Your Body
9. Supposed To Be
10. Army