Poison Season

Don't be put off by sad-voiced crooner Dan Bejar's stage name: the only thing this enigmatically evocative Canadian songwriter is guaranteed to destroy is your preconceptions. The erstwhile New Pornographer's 11th album makes a sharp right turn following Kaputt's '80s-jazz soft-pop. His dramatic fusion of rich, string-driven balladry ("The River," "Girl in a Sling") and the saxophone-fueled rock fury of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band ("Times Square," "Midnight Meet the Rain") transform New York bohemian despair into glorious rock epiphanies.