The title of this sophomore effort expresses Groenland’s entry into a new era, one that is more significant and vast than the previous. The two-plus years of touring across both Canadian and European soil brought to light various questions at the heart of the band. They decided that they needed to continue both their music and human evolutions by working on the group’s inner-harmony. I might be the one to place / All my eggs into one basket / But it still feels like my best bet, sings Halde on the album’s opening track, Nothing Personal.

While their debut album The Chase, which was praised by the public and sold over 32k copies in Canada since its release in April 2013, depicted people and anecdotes with lightness, A Wider Space is more personal and realistic. The new LP bears witness to the darker sides of adventure, the flip side of touring. It’s a manifesto about what follows the euphoria felt at the beginning of an adventure, the band explains. The lyrics speak of anxiety, fear, survival, acceptance and the courage to see yourself in the most vulnerable way.

However, A Wider Space is not a downbeat album. Producer Marcus Paquin (Local Natives, Arcade Fire, The National, etc.) made good use of Groenland’s creative forces. Still guided by Sabrina’s powerful vocals and punctuated by exuberant orchestral arrangements, these ten new songs daringly mix electro and organic elements. From the surprising sax solo on Healing Suns to the comforting ukulele on the title track, A Wider Space reflects the band’s newly-found maturity and recalls the joie de vivre closely associated with Groenland’s performances since the very beginning.