Donovan Woods

Woods’ featured vocals on Dabin & Nurko’s “When This Is Over” glide into anthemic dance pop, and yet Woods still sounds right at home.

For “IOWA,” a bucolic meditation on dreaming of a place you know doesn’t exist, Woods found a kindred spirit in Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan. Together they find power in grace and economy as their voices entwine.

“Being Together” further defies expectations of what a Donovan Woods song sounds like. Initially acoustic, it unfurls with snatches of distorted instruments that are both dizzying and luminous.

“Life is of course short, but it’s also really long. I was trying to write a song about that. The heartaches that felt like they were gonna ruin my life, not only do they no longer bother me, I don’t even remember them,” says Woods, who co-wrote “Being Together” with Steve Robson, the English songwriter who has scored hits with everyone from Carrie Underwood to Miley Cyrus.

Co-written with Australian pop musician Hayley Warner, his latest single “Here in Chicago” touches on Woods’ favorite subject.

“It’s about learning that someone you still have feelings for is suddenly in the same town as you for the night, and the inevitable thoughts and chain of events that might set into motion,” he says.

Equally at home in folk and country music — and even electronic pop, it now seems — Woods mines small moments to find greater truths on his latest album.