After hard years spent on tour with little to show for it, the North Carolina band American Aquarium fully intended to call it quits after recording the 2012 album “Burn.Flicker.Die.” Instead, the alt-country group found unexpected success—enough to revise their break-up plans and make another record, “Wolves,” which premieres today on Speakeasy.

It’s a collection of 10 scruffy songs shot through with an abundance of roots-rock grit and wistful, road-worn lyrics from singer and guitarist BJ Barham, who calls the album “a huge...