Slaid Cleaves - Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

This year's bounty comes baring the admittedly foreboding title of Everything You Love Will be Taken Away, but fans of the Austin-based singer-songwriter needn't fear: Everything you love about the man's singular voice and music is still very much . There's been some notable changes made, all in the name of artistic growth, but rest assured: all that living, writing songs, making records, traveling around and trying to be good has, par for his course, made Slaid Cleaves even better.From the hardscrabble (but cheerful) verses of 'Hard to Believe' to the bluegrass-tinged lament of 'Green Mountains and Me' to the harsh, sarcastic-and reluctantly optimistic-lines of 'Beautiful Thing', this is a record that just goddam works, from first to last. - Stephen King