Via (Bonus Track Version)

Thalia Zedek has been making emotionally difficult music since her earliest days, and she's continued that streak with the post-punk slo-core of Come in the '90s and on her own as a solo artist. Via recalls her previous works, with sounds never prettified but kept as raw as a bleeding hand. "Get Away" could be a lost Come track, such is the basic uncompromising blare of the drums. The guitar chords consistently scrape the amps. Zedek's weathered vocals are less interested in perfect pitch than in expressing her thoughts with more empathy than Lou Reed. The entire album plays like a deliberately monochromatic sketch, while David Michael Curry's viola further makes clear that prettiness isn't in this songwriter's approach. Overpowering minor chords override whatever hope might be expressed in the lyrics. "Walk Away" sounds determined, but "He Said" burns with a Crazy Horse–like sense of decay. The band tramples an acoustic guitar for the two-chord shuffle of "In This World." It's a hard life.