The Weight Is a Gift

PopMatters says the band spent a month at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone, living in a friend's townhouse near Haight-Ashbury, where Lorca cooked. Caws told Vice that Walla was intimidating at first and, frustrated by the pace, recorded and mixed a song about them in one evening to show how fast it can be done. Geoff Sanoff, John Goodmanson, John Agnello and Ed Stasium mixed, and John Roderick of the Long Winters sings on it. The title comes from a lyric in "Do It Again". The band told NPR it deals with lust, deception, love and regret.

It reached 167 on the Billboard 200. Metacritic gives 73; AllMusic gave 4 of 5, Rolling Stone 3, Entertainment Weekly a B, and Pitchfork's Marc Hogan 6.4, calling it melancholic post-Coldplay guitar-pop. Singles were "Always Love" and "Imaginary Friends".