Though this year’s The Way Out is The Books’ fourth studio album, it’s still easy to feel bewildered by the music that New York City guitarist/vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong create. Their experimental sound revolves around speech and sound samples that, astonishingly, you’d be hard-pressed not to enjoy. Take their latest work as evidence – The Way Out features self-help passages (“Group Autogenics”), some kid brutally threatening another (“A Cold Freezin’ Night”) and a folk song that was created thanks to free online language translators (“Free Translator”). With The Black Heart Procession. BRYDEN MCGRATH

Sat., Dec. 4, 8 p.m., 2010