Ought

Emerging from Montreal in 2011, the quartet Ought absorbed much of its direction from the city’s active undercurrent of political engagement, loft events, and self-reliant artistic practices. Singer and guitarist Tim Darcy—previously known as Tim Beeler before adopting his mother’s maiden name in 2015—joined bassist Ben Stidworthy, keyboardist Matt May, and drummer/violinist Tim Keen to shape a sound that combined the charged drive of mid-’90s emo with the open, minimalist leanings of early college-rock groups such as the Feelies and Talking Heads. The four members shared a single apartment that also served as their rehearsal space, where they recorded their debut EP, New Calm, themselves in 2012. Regular local shows eventually drew the notice of Constellation, which issued the band’s first album, More Than Any Other Day, in spring 2014. That October they followed with the four-track EP Once More with Feeling. Their next full-length, Sun Coming Down, arrived in September 2015. Early in 2017 Darcy issued a solo album of more introspective songs, some written before Ought existed. The band resurfaced in 2018 on Merge Records with Room Inside the World, led by the single “These 3 Things,” whose drum-machine and synthesizer textures pointed toward a shift in approach.