This Rilo Kiley frontwoman is everything a mother could want in a daughter: She's bright, talented — and ready to slice 'n' dice anyone who's done Mom wrong. "In your honor, I'm going to cut that man in half," she wails in "Jack Killed Mom," an enigmatic domestic fable that segues from chugging rock to a revival-tent rave-up. Lewis is indie rock's most sharp-elbowed songwriter, a crafter of taut meditations on love, sex and politics that are full of violent emotions and, occasionally, plain old violence. There's plenty of storminess on her excellent second solo album, whose songs mix muscular guitar rock ("The Next Messiah") with soul balladeering ("Sing a Song for Them") and chamber pop ("Black Sand"). But Lewis — joined here by Elvis Costello and other all-stars — also lets a little light shine in. On the gospel-country title track, she is a wary but hopeful romantic: "We were unlucky in love/But I'd do it all again." And on the stirring, string-swamped "Trying My Best to Love You," she compares her love to angels' wings, diamonds and crystal, taking the measure of happiness in the same way she has always dissected discontentment: ferociously.