Nashville-based alt-rock trio PAPER ROUTE have released their third full-length album, titled Real Emotion on Kemosabe Records/RAL/Sony Music Ent.

Blending digital-age pop/rock with ambient vocals, the 16-track album — produced and written by JT Daly (vocals, keyboards, percussion), Chad Howat (bass, piano, programming), Nick Aranda (guitar) — is available now on all digital platforms and as a double vinyl (purchase links below).

With Real Emotion, the band’s creative vision didn’t end with the music. When the time came to select artwork for the album cover, main lyricist and frontman JT Daly, a lifelong artist, found visual inspiration from the themes emerging within the new music. Using mixed materials–prints, paint, and items such as an old TV, cassette boombox radio, playing cards, flowers and a bowl of pill capsules—Daly and his longtime collaborative art partner Micah Bell crafted an immersive art installation, with all surrounding walls and floor draped with several individual pieces, each inspired by a track off Real Emotion.

The album cover is a photograph of PAPER ROUTEactually inside the room installation. Video clip documenting the making of the art installation here:

“The album title, Real Emotion, comes from a conversation I had with author David Dark about mental health,”Daly explains. “How it can be embarrassing when those closest to you witness the real you, and the struggle of balancing everyday life. How it might almost seem fake but it is very real. It’s a real emotion. The album art is a visual expression of these emotions.”

PAPER ROUTE first conjured up their melody-driven take on electronic-leaning alt-rock back in 2004. Over the next few years, the band split their time between touring with arena-filling acts like Paramore and sharing smaller stages with the likes of Thurston Moore and Mark Kozelek (their fellow performers at SXSW 2008’s Lou Reed tribute show). They released their full-length debut Absence in 2009 and their second LP The Peace Of Wild Things in 2012. Charged with the raw energy that PAPER ROUTE has revealed in touring the world with bands like Imagine Dragons, Passion Pit and Mutemath, Real Emotion achieves that feeling in part by making guitars central to its intricately crafted arrangements.

PAPER ROUTE will support the new album on their 17-date headlining tour (THE REALLY EMOTIONAL TOUR) kicking off October 27^th in Baton Rouge, LA featuring support from Halfnoise (Zac Farro’s solo project). The national run will include several stops in Texas—Dallas, Houston and Austin–as well as St. Louis,Chicago, Minneapolis, DC, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Orlando, before coming to a close in the band’s hometown of Nashville.

For tickets and full list of shows visit the band’s website.