Scott McCaughey is a man who has worn plenty of musical hats over the years, but he has a funny way of bringing his own personality to whatever project he’s working on, even as his collaborators lend their distinct colors to the music. The eighth album from McCaughey’s the Minus 5 is a fine example; for Killingsworth, McCaughey and his usual musical partner, Peter Buck, are joined by several members of the Decemberists, and when McCaughey’s smart, slightly bent pop sensibilities meet Colin Meloy’s arty grand-scale folk-rock, you get a curious but thoroughly compelling country rock album that sounds casual and epochal at once. McCaughey has brought a more somber set of tunes to this project than one might expect, and while there’s an undercurrent of whimsy lurking in songs like “Vintage Violent,” “Smoke On, Jerry,” and “Scott Walker’s Fault,” the fiddles, steel guitar, and accordions that pepper the arrangements bring the sad side of these melodies to the surface, and the harmonies of the She Bee Gees walk a fine line between somber and playful. “Big Beat Up Moon” and “Dark Hand of Contagion” are sad songs that speak to a world full of sad people, while “It Won’t Do You Any Good” and “The Long Hall” hold out little that things will improve anytime soon, but McCaughey’s songs speak of a messed-up planet where we’re all in it together, and that with a little compassion (and some cold beer), we can help carry one another’s burdens. Killingsworth is an album a bit short on optimism, but there’s a cock-eyed hope in the sweet sadness of this music, and for a guy who used to make like the class clown of the Pacific Northwest, Scott McCaughey shows again he’s matured into one of the strongest and most distinctive songwriters of his generation. These 14 songs conjure up a musical vision that’s very much his own, despite the A-list help backing him up. – Mark Deming