THE NATIONAL Laugh Track (4AD) — Matt Berninger, the frontman and main lyric writer for the National, talked openly about a relatively recent bout with writer’s block that put the future of the band in doubt. He evidently had quite the breakthrough, because fewer than six months has passed since First Two Pages of Frankenstein and the the National’s newest album, Laugh Track, which was dropped in a surprise release. Laugh Track announces itself as a companion piece to its immediate predecessor in all sorts of ways, including the mirroring album art and the return of notable guests Bon Iver, on “Weird Goodbyes,” and Phoebe Bridgers, on the lovely, intricate title cut. This time around, they also secure the participation of Rosanne Cash, whose vocals formidably bolster “Crumble.” The National are in such a sturdy mode that it’s mind-boggling to think they were ever in an unsteady place. As always, the luxuriant, layered music by Bryce and Aaron Dessner provides the velvet bed for Berninger’s baritone crooning of words that are mostly an expression of the romantically forlorn. When it comes to seasoned indie rock, it’s rarely more satisfying than this. In addition to the cuts already mentioned, check out “Alphabet City,” “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces),” “Space Invader,” “Hornets,” and “Tour Manager.”

CORINNE BAILEY RAE Black Rainbows (Thirty Tigers) — It’s been seven years since the last full-length studio effort from Corinne Bailey Rae, and the English singer-songwriter, and she’s come back with a turbo-charged engine of an album. Part of the Black Rainbows origin story takes place in the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, where Bailey Rae took in an exhibition based around Black history. Bailey Rae took the welled-up thoughts and feelings from that experience and channeled them into a set of potent, politicized songs that roam more freely across genres than she’s ever allowed before. Album opener “A Spell, A Prayer” is like the abstracted rock of PJ Harvey had she been reared on soul music. There’s the deliriously warped jazz of the title cut, the industrialized fuzz of “Erasure,” and the Sleigh Bells–like electropunk of “New York Transit Queen.” On “He Will Follow You with His Eyes,” Bailey rae even comes across like an indie rock Eartha Kitt. The sonic scope of the album matches up with the history — in all it’s pain, hope, and defiance — that inspires it. The artistic summit she chose to mount is mightily ambitious, but Bailey Rae is up to the task. Follow Rainbows all the way to the end to discover the gold that’s in “Earthlings,” “Put It Down,” and “Red Horse.”