Blitzen Trapper: Destroyer of the Void

From chaotic, lo-fi beginnings, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper have grown into one of alt-country's most accomplished players, an evolution that continues on their fifth album. Despite opening with a six-minute prog symphony, it emerges as their sharpest record yet, a 70s-inflected melodicism coursing through the harmony-laden folk-rock. With oblique lyrical references to both Dylan and the Grateful Dead, they're never less than knowingly derivative, but the burnished instrumentation and beguiling yarn-spinning render this greater than the sum of its influences.