Dirt Buyer III begins with a song about sports. "Baseball/ Is somethin'/ I'll never get, but I/ Sleep on it/ Wake up/ And try again," Joe Sutkowski coos over loping-then-roaring distorted guitar. But of course, anyone familiar with the emotional depths of Dirt Buyer's music knows Sutkowski isn't simply singing about America's favorite pastime. "It's about growing up with certain expectations and adhering to them for no reason other than doing what you're told," Sutkowski explains. "The song is about gaining autonomy and independence." In its opening moments, Dirt Buyer III goes back to origin stories, to disconnects hard-wired in childhood, to set up an album that, from there, is a visceral document of navigating the same trials in adulthood.