The Road, Pt. 1

On his first album in seven years, James Lavelle assembles a characteristically wide cast of collaborators, but The Road, Pt. 1 is as moody and introspective as his rock-electronic hybrids have ever sounded. Mark Lanegan’s gravelly baritone lends sorrowful weight to the theatrical strings of “Looking for the Rain,” while “Cowboys or Indians” demonstrates Lavelle’s fondness for fusion, toggling between acoustic folk and nervous trip-hop. The dark clouds grow a silver lining on “Stole Enough,” a bittersweet song for piano and gospel chorus.