Singer-songwriter Jilian Medford has been the central force of IAN SWEET since the fuzz-pop act’s formation more than a decade ago. But on Shiverstruck, IAN SWEET’s fifth album, Medford is putting distance between herself and her signature project: “Jilian/Go on and tell ’em that you’re sick of it…/Oh, it’s a cruel world you’re livin’ in,” she sings on the shimmering “Jilian,” her winsome croon orbited by a slide guitar that sounds like emphatic tears. That sharpened sense of perspective imbues the music and lyrics on Shiverstruck, which Medford wrote after a stint in New York where she worked as a songwriter for children while dealing with the music industry’s 21st-century challenges. Tracks like the steely-eyed “Wild Heart” chart her increased resilience and emphatically cast off of the “sad girl” label placed on her music: “I don’t even cry anymore/You’re not worth cryin’ for,” she asserts, her soprano slicing through synths in a way that underscores her resolve. “Hired Gun” gains sonic power as Medford’s healing from a “dog licking at open wounds” progresses, eventually climaxing in crashing riffs and drums as she realizes she can protect herself while staying compassionate; “Criminal Kissing” combines an anthemic, synth-drenched chorus with whispered longing and romantic nostalgia. Shiverstruck ends with “Speed Demon,” which opens as a simple voice-and-guitar remembrance of “a good year for the dreamers” before blossoming into noisy splendor, with a Rhodes and a string section (arranged by Chicago-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart) heightening the gravity of its central question: “Baby, what do you believe in?”