Room's Too Cold dropped in October 2003. It was a particularly lush take on the Drive-Thru sound, with strings and ballads and a focus on the rich vocal presence of Enders. The band toured extensively behind the record; Enders later issued the first effort from his solo project I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business in late 2004 and briefly toured behind the disc. Enders then turned back to the Early November, and writing began that summer for their follow-up sophomore release. Recording commenced in February 2005 with a fifth member on board, guitarist Bill Lugg. The band also released a summer split EP with I Am the Avalanche, Vinnie Caruana's post-Movielife project. The resulting The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path was eventually issued in July 2006 as an ambitious triple album. (The band took a cut in royalties to make sure it was offered at a single-disc price.) Boasting a rock-oriented disc ("The Mechanic"), a more mellow, stripped-down disc ("The Mother"), and a third character-based soundtrack with dialogue to intermingle among the first two ("The Path"), the album was conceptually based around a troubled father-son relationship and the subsequent imperfect relationship between the then-adult son and his own child. Various rounds of touring followed. In March 2007, however, the bandmembers announced their plans to go on an indefinite hiatus after the completion of scheduled dates that year. Following the split, Enders continued working on his solo projects.