The first thing you might notice about HOSPITALITY's second album "Trouble" is what you don't hear. The process of completing "Trouble" was, for the band, one of learning to accept silence, to let that empty space exist no matter what it might awaken or evoke.

You could catch glimpses of these dark and unexplored places in the margins of HOSPITALITY's 2012 self-titled debut, but they are at the very heart of "Trouble".

If you listen closely, you can hear a band pushing against their own boundaries and limitations until they find the very air around them subtly but perceptibly changed.

The trio of Amber Papini (guitar, vocals), Brian Betancourt (bass), and Nathan Michel (drums) approach "Trouble" with the force and unity of a well-rehearsed touring rock band.

They supplement their performances with strategically placed strings, synthesizers, and drum machines.

But silence is an inescapable force on "Trouble", an invisible fourth player that draws you into the unexplored corners of familiar sounds: the full, ghostly decay of a reverb tail, the round pluck of a bass string, the exact syllables where a doubled vocal line diverges.

In its lyrics and its musical construction, "Trouble" is an album that wonders about the mysteries that lurk just beyond our field of vision.

With a title referencing the artist's endless struggle in the battle between creativity and outside forces, "Trouble" also explores the universal themes of loss, love, and loneliness with Papini's trademark wit.

The album was hashed out in band practices that blurred the boundaries between work and leisure, darkness and light, creative collaboration and friendship.

Through the sessions, the band sought to take their music as far as they possibly could as a three-piece, to make sure that every small gesture fell into place and played a vital role in constructing the shape and feel of the songs.

When put to tape, some of the songs for "Trouble" worked better than expected as fierce and focused trio performances, while others called for more substantial re-imaginings.

"I Miss Your Bones" emerged almost entirely from a live performance, while "Inauguration" found the band ripping apart their live arrangement and reconstructing the song with drum machines and synthesizers.

The album unfolds like a walk on the beach or a journey to a place you didn't know you were going.

Perhaps a darker sound overall, but "Trouble" begins with the trademark HOSPITALITY pop then unfurls to reward the listener with the more expansive stripped-down instrumentation of side B.

And here, again, is that distinctively present silence, creating a space where an undulating synthesizer feels as alive and mysterious as a single voice in a room.