Music refracts darkness as light. Through a kaleidoscope of lush guitars, ethereal orchestration, and heavenly delivery, City and Colour alchemically transforms life's turbulence into waves of blissful, bold, and brilliant alternative anthems. Under this banner, singer, songwriter Dallas Green siphons serenity from stress on his sixth full-length studio album, A Pill for Loneliness. Ultimately, these eleven tracks illuminate an entrancing and engaging emotional expanse, balancing two extremes with eloquence and energy. "I wrote a lot of dark songs and wrapped them in the most beautiful sounds we could find," he explains.

Introductory single "Astronaut" lifts off on a dusty rumble of clean guitar and a steady beat. Green's voice immediately captivates as he carries a divine and dynamic hook before an echoing solo. Elsewhere, "Strangers" hinges on a buoyant riff and hummable groove. It charges towards a ghostly refrain awash in reverb as he pleads, "Don't wake me when this is over, just let me drift amidst my dreams." From the slow burn build-up of "Living in Lightning," which borrows its title from John Steinbeck's East of Eden, to the gorgeous last gasp of the piano-driven "Lay Me Down," A Pill for Loneliness unlocks the catharsis hinted at by the title.

In the end, by confronting the dark, City and Colour emerges with his brightest work yet.