Urgent and direct, Now for Plan A is as rocking a release as The Tragically Hip has delivered since the mid-‘00s. Unafraid to explore quirky tangents, singer Gord Downie is as poetic, touching, and flat-out weird as ever, while the band’s muscular, two-guitar frontline and pounding rhythm section maintain full speed on rockers like “The Lookahead,” “We Want to Be It,” and the snarling opener, “At Transformation.” Beautiful contrasts are found in the lush title track (with gorgeous backing vocals by Sarah Harmer) and the ballad “Done and Done,” both complementing the album’s intensity with a quiet fire of their own.