That direction makes sense considering where the album came from. Amos developed much of The Singer in My Band while traveling on tour, and the record carries that feeling of watching towns and highways pass through a car window. The opener, “I Will Eat My Heart in the Morning Light,” establishes that atmosphere immediately. Acoustic guitar and a steady drumbeat push the song forward without making a big show of themselves. There’s movement everywhere on this album, but it rarely feels like Amos is rushing to get anywhere.

More than anything, The Singer in My Band feels interested in people. Names like Billy, Sarah, Joey, Genevieve, and Buddy appear throughout the record, giving it the feeling of a collection of stories picked up along the road rather than a straightforward autobiography. “Billy Came Back” is probably the clearest example. Amos turns a local karaoke singer into something close to a folk hero, surrounding a relatively small story with bright guitars, layered vocals, and one of the album’s strongest hooks.

Amos also lets his own family become part of the record. His father, bluegrass musician Bob Amos, plays banjo on the title track, while his sister Sarah contributes backing vocals. Those details make the album’s turn toward country and folk feel less like Amos trying on a genre and more like him digging into music that was already somewhere in his DNA.

Still, The Singer in My Band is at its most exciting when some of the old weirdness slips through. “Oh No Now My” sounds like it wandered in from another This Is Lorelei record entirely, breaking up the cleaner Americana with heavier guitars and a much stranger sense of momentum. Later, “The Kid with the Crown” similarly benefits from Amos letting the arrangement get louder and messier, with its explosive guitar cutting through the album’s otherwise restrained production.

That restraint is both the album’s strength and its biggest limitation. Box for Buddy, Box for Star, Amos’ previous effort, could suddenly change direction underneath you; The Singer in My Band rarely does. There are moments where another bizarre left turn would have helped break up the record’s consistency. But Amos seems less interested in proving how many things he can do this time around. He’s testing how much he can accomplish with relatively little.

And it turns out the answer is quite a lot. The Singer in My Band trades some of This Is Lorelei’s unpredictability for something harder to fake: a record that feels lived in. It’s funny, lonely, melodic, occasionally strange, and filled with characters who seem to exist beyond the songs they inhabit. Amos hasn’t stopped being restless. For once, he’s just found a reason to stay in one place for a while.

Order The Singer In My Band by This is Lorelei HERE