Trails and Ways

Pathology was recorded at the band's home in Oakland in 2014, amid the unrelenting crawl of the California drought and the surge of tech-company capital in the Bay Area. The album is a work of multiple hands, multiple hearts, and multiple voices — vibrant, emotional, political and personal. It reckons with social and ecological crises, but with music that's personal and joyful in a way that most "political" or "activist" bands rarely are. The lyrics borrow from different languages, exploring their wordplay and musicality (Keith has a penchant for singing in Portuguese, and Emma in Spanish). The songs integrate the particular voice of places where band members have lived, layering in city noises from Brazil, Oakland and Spain. The lively beats of songs like "Skeletons" and "Downright" get your body in the groove. Big hooks and guitar lines pull you into the wild outdoors on "Mtn Tune", and the rich harmonies that open "Say You Will" feel like a plunge into Pacific water. This is the music of warm colors to enjoy any day, any place on our planet.