“Bitter black coffee at 11 a.m. goes down sweet with that nicotine breakfast,” Adam Kinghorn sings midway through Potions and Poisons, Head for the Hills’ fourth studio record. In addition to caffeine and nicotine, the album is full of vices and personal perils, including greed, death, deceit and more. Yet, it would be a disservice to call this a somber LP. Through 10 tracks, the Colorado quartet maintains a steady pace that prevents Potions and Poisons from buckling under its gloomy subject matter. Instrumental tracks like “Floodwaters” and “Bucker” keep things lively, with each member (Kinghorn on guitar, Joe Lessard on fiddle, Matt Loewen on bass and new addition Sam Parks on mandolin) showing off their best jamgrass riffs. Considered by some to be “post-bluegrass,” Head for the Hills adhere to some traditional aspects of the genre, but also incorporate elements of jazz, soul and folk music into their repertoire. Effectively, Potions and Poisons’ scarce arrangements prove a certain maturity. The band combines soulful ambiance with nimble twanging to create a strings-only record that still maintains a thumping heartbeat. (Though, to be fair, there is a percussive washboard on “Kings and Cowards,” supplied by Elephant Revival’s Bonnie Paine.) In short, Potions and Poisons chronicles the pitfalls of humanity, without being dragged down to their level. You hear it most on “Suit and Tie,” where the band merges beautiful vocal harmonies with toe-tapping string solos and poignant lyrics. It makes you question if you should kick up your feet or fall into a state of contemplation. And perhaps that was the goal all along.