On Damien Jurado’s 10th album, the tried and true folk bard is quick to turn on himself — not a comfortable task for a solo performer who stares into seas of people nightly. “Many nights you would hide from the audience/ When they were not in tune with your progress,” he sings on “Working Titles,” as angelic harmonies glide in for some reprieve. “In the end you’re a fool like a journalist/ Who turns what she’s seeing into business.”

The lyrical self-flagellation is not entirely new to Jurado’s catalogue; he is an extraordinarily sensitive singer-songwriter, one whose reedy voice and deft lo-fi arrangements do little to offset his frequent anguish. He has rested comfortably on cult idolatry for well over a decade by singing with a thoughtful hitch in his throat, largely eschewing the gratuitous noise of his hardcore punk youth. Yet on Maraqopa, his liveliest yet, he indulges in all the lush, psychedelic instrumentation that his modest prior efforts have only suggested; as the acidic opener “Nothing is the News” portends, the plentiful backing vocals and writhing guitar solos are the work of a brazenly confident artist.

One of the album’s tersest tracks, “So On, Nevada,” finds his delicate vocal chords… read more »