Since 2011, singer-songwriter Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas have mixed dusty twang with melancholic dream-pop and shoegaze, "fusing lightness and darkness like few others," says NPR. Widowspeak call the sound "cowboy grunge." Their previous album leaned into light-hearted Americana. By contrast, Expect The Best presents heavier atmospherics, influenced by Hamilton's time in Tacoma, Washington, and marking the first time they've recorded as a quartet. The album balances this newfound energy with the band's characteristic intimacy. It's out on longtime label Captured Tracks (Mac DeMarco, Wild Nothing).