Tigers Blood finds Waxahatchee abandoning the remaining indie accents that gave Saint Cloud, her 2020 album, such an exquisite out-of-phase quality. No longer lingering upon the delicate qualities of her music, Katie Crutchfield favors an immediacy that's not necessarily visceral. Much of Tigers Blood proceeds at an unhurried pace -- indeed, its opening track, "3 Sisters," appears to creep over the horizon, slowly coalescing around Crutchfield's clarion voice -- but velocity isn't the only way music can feel direct. There's something bracing about the warmth she creates on Tigers Blood, particularly in how it emanates as much from the performances as it does the songs. Setting up shop at the hip West Texas studio Sonic Ranch, Crutchfield and producer Brad Cook recruited a number of prominent indie musicians, anchoring the collective with drummer Spencer Tweedy and finding space for MJ Lenderman and Megafaun's Phil Cook. The result is a Waxahatchee record that feels like the work of a band; it's possible to hear the group breathe and exhale alongside Crutchfield, accentuating the heart and humor in the work. Part of the reason Tigers Blood feels so warm and open is how Lenderman lends harmonies in addition to lead guitar, coming to the forefront to duet on "Right Back to It." His tangible presence helps illustrate how Waxahatchee now seems to subscribe to the same ideals as Americana, but Crutchfield's writing is too elliptical and eccentric to suffer from pretensions of authenticity. Instead, Tigers Blood is the rarest of things: an album that feels familiar upon its surface and idiosyncratic in its details.

A1        3 Sisters
A2        Evil Spawn
A3        Ice Cold
A4        Right Back To It
A5        Burns Out At Midnight
A6        Bored
B7        Lone Star Lake
B8        Crimes Of The Heart
B9        Crowbar
B10        365
B11        The Wolves
B12        Tigers Blood