Headlights’ third album, Wildlife, is at once their most immediate album and also their most reserved-sounding and emotionally powerful. Recorded over a relatively short period of time but punctuated by false starts, frustrations, and departures of bandmembers, the band ultimately ended up with an intimate and very personable sound. Using first takes and almost no production tricks, the strength of the record lies in the unadorned emotion of Erin Fein’s vocals, and the wonderfully sweet and heartfelt songs the group wrote. While there may be no break-out hits on par with “Cherry Tulips” from 2008′s Some Racing, Some Stopping, and the overall tone of the record is less joyous and more thoughtful, there are still quite a few songs that have some punch and forward motion. The sweetly sung “Get Going” and the rocked-out “I Don’t Mind at All” have a rollicking feel that calls to mind the group’s earlier work and gives some balance to the ballads that make up the core of the album. These slow and dream-like songs, like the ’50s-inspired tracks “You and Eye” and “Dead Ends,” the drifting “Teenage Wonder,” and the heartbreakingly heavy “Slow Down Town” drift through the speakers like sleepwalking ghosts and deliver a truly aching sense of loss and sadness that’s hard to shake. Despite its few moments of easygoing rocking, Wildlife has a tenderness that the band may not have been able to convey in the past, a bruised heart that they haven’t displayed before. Some of the fans the band won over with “Cherry Tulips” may find it rough going at times, and find themselves wishing there were more good-time tunes on offer, but if they can get past that initial bump, the album is an emotionally powerful, melodically rich work that adds a new dimension to Headlights that is quite welcome. – Tim Sendra