With his seventh studio album, San Francisco singer/songwriter Sean Hayes touches on balancing financial struggles with the emotional elations of newfound fatherhood—it was written and recorded the same year he became a dad. The opening title track pulses with organic beats and rootsy instruments, over which Hayes soulfully croons about trying to focus on love in economically strapped times. He flip-flops in the following Bill Withers–inspired “Miss Her When I’m Gone” with refreshingly honest lyrics declaring that he’ll get through his loneliness on the road by focusing on making a living for his family. It’s the kind of salt-of-the-earth soul that would sit well on a mix alongside early Donny Hathaway recordings. “Bam Bam” deviates from familial topics to deliver a sultry and smoldering jam steeped in vintage Memphis grooves and a modern R&B cool. An unsettling and eerie vibe akin to Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” haunts “Lucky Man,” a bluesy dirge that sounds like it was tracked in the West Saugerties, N.Y., basement of Big Pink.