Lady Lamb - Even in the Tremor (2019)

''I'm always teetering on the edge of self-sabotage,'' says Aly Spaltro aka Lady Lamb. ''The whole idea of this new album is the push and pull between calmness and chaos, joy and anxiety, self-loathing and self-love.'' Nowhere is that more clear than the title track, ''Even in the Tremor,'' an ecstatic panic attack unspooling with all the far-flung places Spaltro has visited throughout the course of her writing process, including Berlin, Montreal, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania and Nicaragua's Masaya volcano, a touchstone visual for Spaltro in her conception of this latest project. ''The past will kill the present / if I let it,'' the singer repeats like an anxious dance party mantra for romantics and overthinkers alike. Even in the Tremor marks Spaltro's latest full-length LP following 2015's After and it's a remarkable achievement because, among other things, it's the first time in her career that Spaltro is singing explicitly about herself. ''I've never let myself be this exposed before,'' she says, ''but this whole album is about facing who you are and fighting your way toward self-acceptance.'' Between confessing a tantrum in a batting cage (''Little Flaws''), telling the story of her parent s kiddie-pool baptism (''Young Disciple'') and singing openly about untangling her girlfriend's wet hair (''Deep Love''), Even in the Tremor is deeply rooted in the people and places, extraordinary and mundane, that have shaped Spaltro into the self-determining artist she is today. Known for her keen observations of others, Spaltro now turns her multifaceted ruminations inward; She calls out from dreams, peers into churches, has fits of rage, and struggles to get out of her head long enough to love herself and those around her. ''It's taken me years to get here,'' she says, ''but I'm sort of done with hiding myself. I want to be as honest as I can because that's why people turn to art. Anybody can tell the difference between bulls**t and real vulnerability.'' This commitment to creating only what is necessary and urgently felt is the key to appreciating Spaltro's fearless songwriting, as emotional as it is philosophical. Even in the Tremor signifies the arrival of her most sonically soaring and brutally honest album to date.