The first time I saw the duo of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, at a small, half-empty club in Baltimore shortly before the release of their debut album, If Children, will always stick out in my mind as a cherished memory. And it’s not just because their band, then called Monarch and now known as Wye Oak, have since gone on to national acclaim and a deal with Merge Records. More than any me-first bragging rights, I remember that night as the first time I heard several songs that I’ve since fallen in love with an obsessed over, as If Children subsequently revealed its emotional depth and musical ingenuity more with each listen.

So Wye Oak’s second album, The Knot, comes along with some high expectations, at least on my end. And while it’s impossible to compare the newer songs with ones that have had time to sink in and gain more personal meaning, there are some immediate musical differences. Wasner takes a firm lead role as the band’s frontwoman now, while Stack, who sang several songs on If Children, only has one audible vocal performance on The Knot’s brief opening track, “Milk And Honey.” But Stack has also added to his instrumental arsenal, playing melodica on “Talking About Money” and “That I Do” in addition to the drums and keyboards that he simultaneously juggles onstage. And though one of Wye Oak’s biggest selling points is their ability to recreate lush studio recordings with just two members onstage, they don’t limit themselves on The Knot to only what can be pulled off in concert; the violin and backmasked guitar on “Siamese” won’t likely figure into live renditions, but are crucial components the song’s dense arrangement.

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Wasner’s slide guitar also becomes an increasingly significant and welcome presence on The Knot, particularly on the standout “Take It In,” where it drips gorgeous textures over the song’s bridge. But more than the broadened instrumental palette, the emotional tenor of the band’s songs has begun to shift; where If Children felt quietly sad and mournful, The Knot has a deeper sense of dread at its core. The album’s centerpiece, the 7-minute dirge “Mary Is Mary,” was written after a dead body was found behind the band’s house. And even though not every song is quite so morbid, there’s a dark, foreboding undercurrent to “That I Do” and “For Prayer” that wasn’t present anywhere on the band’s debut. If that ultimately makes The Knot a more difficult album to come back to again and again than its predecessor, it also confirms how much more depth they have left to plumb on future albums.