NEKO CASE Neon Grey Midnight Green (Anti-) — It must be widely understood by now that Neko Case is one of the greatest songwriters and performers of her generation. Every album is fresh fortification to that undeniable truth. Neon Grey Midnight Green, Case’s first studio album in seven years, offers a dozen new pieces of compelling evidence. Writing with her most frequent collaborator, guitarist Paul Rigby, Case stays connected to her alt-country roots while spreading branches in all directions like a majestic oak. “Tomboy Gold” is experimental track akin to classic Laurie Anderson, and “An Ice Age” begins with a casually powerful a cappella section before sliding into jazzy orchestrations, making the song feel like it’s blooming. The title cut starts in a more familiar Case zone and then builds to a chunky, thumping ending that is like a second coming of classic rock. Across the album, the lyrics are insightful, evocative, and enviably inventive. Album opener “Destination” includes the lyrics “You’re all period blood and soundcheck blues/ Both armpits ripped and a lucky horseshoe pinball bruise,” and that’s fully characteristic of the literary wows Case delivers again and again. She finds poignant truth when observing spiderweb in “Little Gears” and shapes a whole landscape of feeling in the lithely elegant and abundant “Winchester Mansion of Sound” (“If you think I’m talking ’bout romance, you’re not listening/ There’s too much life for just one lifetime/ So you string a few together/ Just to bang them all around and build a tragedy’s momentum”). This is first album Case has produced entirely on her own, which freights it with additional significance. She is speaking true and clear of herself. It’s a privilege to listen. Consider the colors of her being with these tracks: “Wreck,” “Rusty Mountain,” “Baby, I’m Not (A Werewolf),” and “Oh, Neglect…”

SPRINTS All That Is Over (City Slang/Sub Pop) — For their sophomore album, All That Is Over, Sprints keep the accelerator pressed down to the floor. The Dublin-based quartet earned lots of raised pints in their direction for Letter to Self, a bristling debut of uncommon confidence. The new effort reunites them with producer Daniel Fox and takes their sound — a little post-punk and a whole lot of just plain punk — and swirls it around like finger paint to figure out what different textures might emerge. They conjure goth heaviness on “Abandon” and swerve at pulsing and nervy art rock with “Beg.” It’s less reinvention that restless exploration. That’s the right approach for this bend in their career arc, especially since the band has such an immensely appealing presence on record. Frontwoman Karla Chubb brings seething personality and big, ripping vocals to the songs; it’s no small compliment to note that “Something’s Gonna Happen” sounds like a great lost Concrete Blonde track. They can render the punk ripper “Descartes” and the album-closing epic of quiet tension “Desire” with equal conviction. It feels like they fill themselves full with every strum, howl, and pounding beat. In addition to those already mentioned, get started with these tracks: “To the Bone,” “Rage,” “Piece,” and “Coming Alive.”