Mutual Benefit is back. Jordan Lee will return this fall with his 2013-vintage Band To Watch’s first album in five years, Growing At The Edges. “I became interested in the unruly first signs of growth after a disaster, and the beautiful ways lives start to blur into each other through relationships,” Lee explained in a press release. “Edges are where spaces are negotiated.”

Lee worked for the first time with a co-producer, Gabe Birnbaum of Wilder Maker, while violinist Concetta Abatte contributed string arrangements. They wove some country elements into Mutual Benefit’s thoughtful indie pop, as heard on lead single “Little Ways.” Some thoughts from Lee on that one:

“Little Ways” came out of a period in my 30s where acquaintances were buying houses and starting backyard gardens while I was still in a cramped Brooklyn apartment wondering if my life was stuck in place. I eventually found contentment through staying in the present moment and noticing how our inner and outer landscapes change a little each day and that it is our relationships that make a place meaningful.

Vidhu Kota directed a video for “Little Ways” in Brooklyn. Watch it below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Growing At The Edges”
02 “Remembering A Dream”
03 “Beginner’s Heart”
04 “Prefiguring”
05 “Untying A Knot”
06 “Season Of Flame”
07 “Wasteland Companions”
08 “Winter Sun, Cloudless Sky”
09 “Little Ways”
10 “Signal To Bloom”

Growing At The Edges is out 10/6 on Transgressive.