"Tim was involved in the arrangement," Pedersen said. "It's just basically about having a childhood crush and reflecting back."

NEW ORLEANS GROOVE

Facteau and Pedersen split writing credits for "Stronger Me," a mid-tempo love song about resiliency and reflection.

Collin's musical input slowed the former punk-rocked "Between the Lines," written by Pedersen.

"I kept listening to it," Collins said. "I love the song and the melody stuck with me. I was messing around with ideas, and I became obsessed with using strings in various settings because I love the sound. We had a number of pretty rhythmically driving songs. It thought it would be cool to pare this one down and set it acoustically and put some strings on it."

"He took it to the next level," Pedersen said.

"Make You Say Wow" is Pedersen's take on a New Orleans groove inspired by Lott, a displaced Crescent City drummer who just finished a tour with the Charlie Hunter Trio.

"He's a hell of a drummer," Pedersen said. "The song is laid back, a little sloppy."

"Green Canvas Box" is a bouncy, bitter break-up song penned and arranged by Pedersen and Facteau.

BUBLATH ON KEYS

"Dark Route," a dark, brooding vibraphone-laced instrumental, is all Collins.

"We thought it would be cool to have an instrumental tune on the record," he said. "It's a little bit strange compared to the rest of the tunes. But both Mike and I didn't really want to think about does this really fit? His songs have a certain feel. My songs have a certain feel. This is who we are."

The goal of the two is to let each song develop to its full musical potential.

"Some songs are great with guitar and vocals, but you can make them sound totally different with strings," Collins said. "We did that with Ghetto Barbie.' It's a great song. We get a lot of comments from that: Yeah man, I know how you feel.'

It's another bitter-break-up-a-different-girl song in two tracks, the original raw (Track 8) and a radio-friendly edit (Track 10).