Damien Jurado Visions of Us on the Land (2xLP)

On his 12th studio LP, Visions of Us on the Land, revered songwriter's songwriter Damien Jurado continues a trend of moving incrementally deeper into psychedelic textures since beginning to work with producer Richard Swift three albums ago. Their fourth collaboration evokes a flickering aurora peering through charcoal clouds with its swirl of heavy folk-rock and contemplative psychedelia. That quality is accentuated by Jurado's soft-landing vocals, which due to context recall the Zombies' Colin Blunstone more than ever. The album also marks the third straight entry in an unplanned trilogy that Jurado wrote and delivers in character (following Maraqopa and Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son). With elements of the spiritual and the science fictional, the epic story leaves community behind on Visions. Its 17 songs follow the unnamed protagonist on travels across the U.S. with a female companion, on a quest for meaning ("Why sit around and wait to die?"). A seeming allusion to music o