The Avett Brothers don’t really have anything to prove at this point. The North Carolina outfit has unveiled two highly successful albums since their major label debut—and breakout—album I and Love and You dropped in 2009. That lack of pressure to assert themselves means that True Sadness, the band’s first album since 2013, can be its own version of pure expression, a collection of charming, soulful songs that feel resolutely unique to The Avett Brothers. The album opens with single “Ain’t No Man,” a rousing folk number, but doesn’t necessarily follow a specific stylistic tone throughout. The songs vary drastically, veering from humming ballads like “No Hard Feelings,” to a thumping dive-bar track “Satan Pulls the Strings,” a Southern-tinged romp that makes ample use of a twanging banjo. “True Sadness” exemplifies what makes The Avett Brothers such a beloved band: It begins as a buoyant, acoustic folk-rock number before twisting itself into something far more poignant—the riffs surge and the lyrics grapple with what it means to exist in this world. Much of the album, tonally as upbeat as it may be, feels seeped in ache, as if the musicians want to be clear that no one quite knows how to survive their days without heartbreak and sadness. The 12-track disc concludes with “May It Last,” a lush, cinematic song ornamented with strings, and it’s here that you realize The Avett Brothers don’t even need their signature folk elements to achieve a palpable sense of emotional gravity.