When we last saw SafetySuit, the Nashville-based band was supporting 2008’s Life Left To Go and hit single “Stay,” which shot to No. 1 on the voter-generated VH1 Top 20 Countdown. Spotlighted by VH1 as a band “You Oughta Know,” the group toured endlessly, playing over 200 shows and selling more than 500,000 singles along the way.

They’re raising the stakes with THESE TIMES (Universal Republic), a scintillating hookfest of arena-ready rock anthems, offering unequivocal proof that the group has the goods to break wide open. Working with producers Howard Benson, Espionage (the New York-based Norwegian team of Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund) and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, these four skilled and remarkably self-assured musicians have cooked up a strikingly melodic, sharply drawn, viscerally immediate album filled with songs that stick in the head and heart.