A live show is the best way to experience The Great Barrier Reefs in that it allows the band a renewal of their music as well as space for subtle experimentation. If you’ve listened to previous recordings by the Reefs, you can hear variations in the songs as well as the flawless way in which the music translates through this compilation, The Great Barrier Reefs: Live in Middle Tennessee.

Though they’ve traveled this side of the country extensively, this album captures their show—a loose, warm and tangible experience—close to home. Namely, these 10 tracks were taken from performances at The 5 Spot and Mercy Lounge in Nashville, Murfreesboro’s Wall Street and Fun Times with Greg and Greg, and The Pond in Franklin.

The Great Barrier Reefs Live in Middle Tennessee creates a bigger picture reminiscent of Miles Davis’ artistic and sonic rambling outside the lines, with Tony Hartman’s glassy, chattering steel pan at the forefront (and hard to ignore on all tracks), Josh Dunlap’s ownership of the saxophone (hear “Gratitude”) and the expressive, deep-cutting bass lines of Taylor Lonardo, whose artistry with the instrument can be heard particularly on “To the Bridge Burners” and “Pasando por las Calles” (*Lonardo mixed the record at his Murfreesboro studio, Spring Street). Don’t miss the bonus track, “Play It Cool”—it’s the best one on there, featuring lush and lightly textured guest vocals from Rhythm Kitchen’s Skylar Gregg.

This compilation will help you make up your mind to see the Reefs live, if you haven’t already. Like all work by The Great Barrier Reefs, the album is not without a path, but it ambles. It’s fluid, elating and worth listening to repeatedly to follow the course of each instrument individually throughout the record at least once; each one on its own is worth as much as the sum of all their parts.