The fourth album from Aaron Lee Tasjan, this year’s Stellar Evolution, lives up to its title. The Nashville songwriter continues to lean more into provocative pop inclinations, with synth-laced grooves like opener “Alien Space Queen” pushing into the anthemic swells of “Horror of It All,” but bounced against often hilarious asides like “The Drugs Did Me” and “I Love America Better Than You.” Tasjan remains masterfully unbound across his impressively eclectic stylistic turns, mixing winces and smirks in defiance of the world that comes across like Todd Snider and Tom Petty thrown into a psychedelic Beatles blender. – Doug Freeman
