Produced by Bridget Kearney of Lake Street Dive, the eleven-song set takes the musical experimentation for which the group has become known even further and announces the arrival of a band which isn’t just genre-bending–they’re creating a wholly new sound. Poetic depth, 60s pop, blues-inspired grooves, and more tease out exciting textures from the band’s bedrock bluegrass foundation. As fiddle player and harmony singer Patrick M’Gonigle observed, “We can’t help but be a cumulative experience of our musical tastes. We love pop music — all of us. And the Beatles, of course. That’s our common ground.” Smoke & Ashes puts that ideal blend of common ground and diverse directions on ferocious display. “Reverie,” the album’s bold opener, starts off with haunting solo piano. Sweet but foreboding harmonies layered over anxious but beautiful strings sweep in after the piano, which, as the only piano on the album, brilliantly serves as a both a harbinger and an outlier composed by guitarist George Clements.