After the success of 2014’s excellent Lateness of Dancers, M.C. Taylor experienced guilt and anxiety when touring kept him away from his young family. Those feelings feed the lyrics of his seventh album as Hiss Golden Messenger. Taylor’s resolute honesty lends absorbing tension to his best album yet—whether it’s complemented by contemplative strumming (“Cracked Windshield”) or masked by the title track’s sweet mandolin and harmonies, and “Like a Mirror Loves a Hammer”’s swampy funk.