The band hails from North Carolina, and their sketches of smalltown life are like blurry musical Polaroids that give you hints of what really went down. Townies, for example, recalls a high school friend whose unhindered personality (and sexuality) led to nasty rumours. “I get it now,” Hartzman sings, “you were 16 and bored and drunk, and they were just townies.”

There are flashes of black humour, too. You know you’re in for something with a song title such as Phish Pepsi, and over a sprightly jam band-style backing, Hartzman reminisces about an old friend: “We watched a Phish concert and Human Centipede, two things I now wish I had never seen.” She adds that the last time she saw this person was in a livestream of a funeral. “Looks like you’re holding up alright,” she sings, “but I know it’s sometimes hard to tell.”

Hartzman’s voice is a wonderfully unpredictable instrument that speaks volumes, whether she’s adopting a lilting country tone or a raw alt-rock roar. It has a crack in it, but as Leonard Cohen would say, that’s where the light gets in.

Nothing is too explicit here. Instead, Hartzman is a songwriter who works more in images and on instinct than with linear storytelling. We know that the lead character in Gary’s II lost his teeth due to a baseball bat wielded by someone who he’d apparently aggravated in some way. As for the full backstory, who knows?

One thing we do know: six albums deep, Hartzman still has plenty of stories to tell. And, as she sang on Chosen to Deserve on the band’s last album, Rat Saw God, “We always started by telling our best stories first, so now that it’s been a while, I’m going to tell you all my worst.”

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