Former Lives is a brisk, occasionally breezy record, but the shadow of time hangs heavily over it, from the “basement of a year” on “Oh, Woe” to the fading beauty “Lady Adelaides”. The decade-long gestation of the album has seen Ben’s songwriting deepen and mature in remarkable ways, but so too has his connection with the material and his own muse.

“Broken Yolk In Western Sky,” is the oldest of the tracks on the album; it’s been a staple of Ben’s solo acoustic shows since 2004. But reimagined here with the help of Mark Spencer’s yearning pedal steel and the canny, intuitive drumming of Superchunk’s Jon Wurster, its tale of roadside heartbreak and renewal sounds more alive than ever. Former Lives isn’t about wallowing in the past or disappearing into it; it’s about letting yesterday go.