You're probably reading this on a mobile phone; this probably means that the majority of your close family and friends are only a few seconds and several dial tones away. The entire world is resting in the palm of your hand, easily accessible regardless of the distance between yourself and those confined within. But, there remains distance all the same. In an age in which connection is easily-achievable, there is always distance. The Wonder Years' sixth LP, Sister Cities, is a record about distance. It is also (to a lesser extent) about family, about grief, about love, and about locales. The eleven tracks which comprise it are marked at eleven different points on a map that fits into your back pocket but extends to a canvas international in scope.

Vocalist and lyricist Dan Campbell understands the scale of distance more than most, you'd expect. As a touring musician the road, up to a point, leads away from home, and sometimes the journey back covers more kilometers than the outbound flight did. This position, torn between home(s) and torn between people, provides the central emotional conflict on Sister Cities, and it allows Campbell to write some of his most compelling lyrics to date, rich in imagery and emotion. Throughout, they border on poetry, and it's easy to see why the deluxe version of the LP ships with a book. This lyrical and emotional backbone, which props up the record, is its most compelling element.

A narrative develops very early on, and every subsequent song piles on the weight, sometimes by the kilograms, and sometimes by the milligram. At the offset we find Campbell boarding a plane to Japan in "Raining In Kyoto" while his Grandfather's health deteriorates, and the resulting song is every bit as heavy-hitting as you'd expect from such subject matter. Bristling with all of the intensity of a Japanese monsoon, The Wonder Years hammer out one of their heaviest songs to date, setting the scene and tone immediately. The air in Kyoto and in its other 'sister cities' is stagnant with a sense of saudade, and that same mood permeates the majority of songs here. The record is weighted, but it is always moving towards higher ground, even though the journey is strenuous.