The title of M. Ward's fifth full-length, POST-WAR, begs the question, post which war? From early 20th-century folk blues to Tin Pan Alley hooks to the various indie-rock schools of the early 2000s, Ward's music works as a suitable elegy for the wounded and dead from across the landscape of American history. Equipped with a voice that is at once rough-hewn and tender, Ward sings about trials of the heart and the soul with a lyrical approach that is touching, evocative, and poetically cryptic. And while his songs can recall the rustic, bluesy charm of a train-hopping troubadour ("Rollercoaster;" "Requiem"), lush studio touches, including a lovely use of reverb (particularly on the haunting opener "Poison Cup" ), and guest appearances from new-fangled roots artists such as Neko Case and My Morning Jacket's Jim James mark the album as very much of its era. POST-WAR places Ward at the vanguard of the ever-evolving Americana musical tradition, with one foot in the past and another in a future all its composer's own.