On the first line of her new album, Lucy Dacus sings: "The first time I tasted somebody else's spit, I had a coughing fit." At once jarring and funny, but delivered with a touch of sadness, the line's abrasiveness pulls listeners immediately into what becomes the beautiful Night Shift, a song about leaving a toxic relationship.

The prematurely talented 22-year-old dexterously builds tension on her second album, deploying lyrical and structural genius, working her way to catharsis on each track.

The songs get the muscle they deserve. Timefighter pushes a slow-burning blues structure towards a grunge-rock climax, while Next of Kin's noisy, crunchy guitars give weight to Dacus's anti-epiphany; "I am at peace with my death/I can go back to bed."

  • Lucy Dacus. Historian. Matador.
  •  ★★★★+