ALLISON RUSSELL The Returner (Fantasy/Concord) — It’s phenomenally fitting that Joni Mitchell inspired the title of Allison Russell’s sophomore full-length, The Returner. After being a firsthand witness to Mitchell’s transcendent 2022 comeback performance as one of the musicians onstage, Russell wrote the poem “Joni, Our Lady Returner.” Like the legendary Mitchell, a fellow Canadian singer-songwriter, Russell isn’t interested in staying in the tiny confines of music industry expectation. Heralded for the rootsy Americana of her 2021 debut, Outside Child, Russell could have stuck with what earned her a trio of Grammy nominations. Instead, The Returner blows it all up. Sure, there are a plenty of instances where Russell doesn’t stray far from what she’s done before, such as the country-tinged title cut, but the overall feel of the album is that its the creation of a happy, fearless wanderer. Smashed out in just a few days of recording at Henson Recording Studios (where Joni Mitchell laid down Blue and Court and Spark, among many others) with a collective of mostly female musicians Russell refers to as the Rainbow Coalition, The Returned is vividly alive in its wide-ranging adventure, whether the disco-adjacent “All Without Within,” or the fiercely reclaimed blues of “Eve Was Black” (“Eve was Black, haven’t you heard?/ The Mother of All was Dark and Good/ Eve was Black, didn’t you know?/ Is that why you hate my Black Skin so?”). “Snakelife” isn’t far from the arty pop inversions of Cat Power or Fiona Apple. If Russell keeps making music this bold and thrilling, there are going to be plenty of people writing awestruck verse in praise of her abundant talent. In addition to cuts already mentioned, revel in the celebratory “Springtime,” “Stay Right Here,” “Rag Child,” and “Requiem.”

BLACK MARKET BRASS Hox (Colemine) — The bustling Minneapolis group Black Market Brass, nine members strong, brings a headlong energy to their third album, Hox. Established specialists in afrobeat, the band takes what they know and builds on it agreeably. it’s less an act of wholesale reinvention than and eager, exploratory expansion. This set of instrumental is speckled with wondrous, warping sounds that are tightly managed and deliriously off-kilter at the same time. “The Pit” sounds like the theme song to coolest nineteen-seventies cop drama that never was, and “A Web, a Knot, a Tangle” reverberates with a sprightly mysticism. The whole album was recorded live to tape, which only accentuates the tightrope acrobatics of the musicianship on offer. Just listen to the thrillingly frenetic “Hox B” and feel a comforting kind of vertigo set in. Hox is full to bursting. Go beyond the tracks above with “But At What Cost?,” “Little Ghosts,” and the colossal “The Rift / Hox C / Desolation Overdrive.”

DEEPER Careful! (Sub Pop) — Careful! is the third album for the Chicago band Deeper and their first since signing with Sub Pop Records. Devoted practitioners of a style of indie rock that draws a quivering line straight back to the Gang of Four and their brethren, the quartet operates with an intensity without ceding any of their skilled tunefulness. Their ability to find the delicacy in post-punk prevents the album from feeling like a retro act. No matter the echoes, Careful! consistently bends towards the now. “Everynight” is a feast of clamorous reverberations, and “Tele” exists in the blissed-out netherworld between Echo and the Bunnymen and LCD Soundsystem. Start to finish, the tracks on the album are sinewy, finely rendered, and heartily satisfying. Take great care while listening to “Build a Bridge,” “Pilsen 4th,” “Airplane Air,” and “Dualbass.”