Listening to his band’s third album, you get the sense that American Babies frontman Tom Hamilton could craft surefire folk-pop hits in a Mumford & Sons or Avett Brothers mode if he chose. Instead, he applies his gifts for melody and choruses to a set of moody, self-dissecting lyrics that don’t always aim for the mainstream. That’s not to say that Knives & Teeth isn’t easy to like—there’s plenty of tunefully rootsy moments here that suggest both ‘70s-era Springsteen and such seminal British pub-rock groups as Brinsley Schwarz and Ace. Searing slide guitars and chiming mandolins lend a deceptively jaunty feel to the unsettling insights in “Cold Blooded,” “Old Fashioned,” “This Thing Ain’t Goin’ Nowheres,” and similar tracks. Romantic angst is captured with particular vividness, especially in the emotionally conflicted “Goddamn” and the rollicking, slightly paranoid “Bullseye Blues.” From the rustic acoustic strains of “When I Build My Fortune” to the rattletrap dance beat of “They Sing ‘Old Time Religion’” and the abrasive, psychedelia-tinged “Telephone,” American Babies take sonic chances that pay off.