Eric Church - Mr. Misunderstood [Blue]

Eric Church's Mr. Misunderstood spins on 180-gram blue vinyl, the surprise 2015 album that found country's resident rebel getting personal and gloriously music-obsessed.

Church dropped it with almost no warning, sending it first to his fan club, the Church Choir, before everyone else, a move that felt perfectly on brand. Longtime producer Jay Joyce helped him dial back some of the arena-sized heft of The Outsiders in favour of something warmer and rooted in songcraft.

The title track is a love letter to the misfits who find salvation in records, name-checking heroes and setting the tone for an album about the power of music itself. "Record Year" turns heartbreak into a vinyl binge, which feels especially apt on this format, and "Mistress Named Music" is a sweeping confession of devotion to the craft. "Kill a Word," with Rhiannon Giddens, is a haunting meditation on the damage language can do.

Susan Tedeschi drops by for a bluesy duet, and across ten tracks the playing has a lived-in, back-porch looseness that suits Church's grainy voice down to the ground.

For fans who prefer Church at his most heartfelt, this is a high point, and a record that practically begs to be played loud on a Sunday afternoon.