Paper Route have toured relentlessly with the likes of Passion Pit and mewithoutyou, won hearts and minds with their debut album Absence (2009) and paid musical tribute to Lou Reed's imperturbable face at South by Southwest. They have even insinuated themselves into pop culture consciousness when their song, "The Music," appeared in the film (500) Days of Summer. The band (Chad Howat on keyboards, piano and programming, J.T. Daly on vocals, keyboards and percussion and Gavin McDonald on drums) have now seen fit to go for broke on the possibility that epic earnestness, lyrical depth, and poetic heft can all coincide within one ridiculously catchy song collection primarily preoccupied with—wait for it—tragedy, disappointment, and loss. Behold The Peace of Wild Things.

After a string of life events got in the way of the record's release – from label jumps, to health scares, to heartbreak – the group were left with a mass amount of material to work through and choose from. With mixing and recording responsibilities falling in Howat's lap ("The computer is my first instrument"), the work of sorting through two to three albums' worth of material and narrowing it all down to something worthy eventually became a question of serving the band's obsession with block-rocking beats: "Everyone in the band loves beats, and the beats we gravitate toward are hip-hop-esque beats." For Howat, the love affair began at 14 when a Yamaha V-50 was vouchsafed upon him ("My dad bought it for me as an 8th grade graduation present.") an artifact Paper Route won't get caught touring without. Incidentally, it's the move from studio to live performance that wouldn't be possible without the energies of drummer Gavin McDonald (Howat: "We wouldn't be a band without Gavin.") who landed with Paper Route through his work with Canon Blue (AKA Daniel James).

The record began to take shape and ten tracks made the final cut. The Peace of Wild Things is packed with sonic gems from start to finish. The band show's their song writing prowess with the drum beat driven, stadium ready first single "You and I", the echoing, endlessly powerful instrumentation of opening track "Love Letters", and the open-air, high-flying feel of "Better Life". With songs like "Letting You Let Go" and "Glass Heart Hymn," the band is determined to show their hand at every turn. Irony and cool detachment be damned. This album has not only been long awaited by fans, but anxiously by the band as well.

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