Pedro the Lion, Flock of Dimes [outside]

After 15 years of pursuing other projects, David Bazan returned to his Pedro the Lion moniker to launch a planned five-album autobiographical cycle with 2019’s Phoenix. This year’s third installment, Santa Cruz, chronicles Bazan’s uprooted teenage years, with all the angsts and excitements of youth unfolding in discovering music and himself. Bazan’s songwriting has always teetered precariously over a crippling chasm of doubt with raw and unflinching indie-rock introspection, and Santa Cruz plumbs through growing up with visceral vitality. Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner brings her solo Flock of Dimes to open. – Doug Freeman