At first glance, Lael Neale’s homemade outsider pop could pass for the creation of an eager amateur, but don’t be fooled. On her fascinating fourth album, the Virginia-bred, LA-based singer and longtime producer Guy Blakeslee cook up a tangy mix of electro (“Wild Waters”), garage (“All Good Things Will Come to Pass”) and dreamy (“There from Here”) sounds, all tied together by her voice, a gently commanding mixture of anxiety and determination. Neale’s concerns range from the cosmic to the everyday as she strives to make sense of the world, reflecting on everything from sensory overload (“My mind is a jungle of sirens and stoplights”) to the search for meaning (“I want what I can’t buy”) to environmental disaster (“The ocean is a trash can”). Haunting and eloquent, Altogether Stranger is the work of a savvy maverick.
