This album is a spectacular gamble: two 15-minute alternative-country operettas of heartbreak autopsy, written in whiplash sequences of hope, breakdown and fragile resolution and scored with twang and bluegrass-style harmonies. It's as if Jeff Tweedy was writing for Wilco while still in Uncle Tupelo, with opera on his mind and a stopwatch in his hand. Nick Shattell is a direct composer ("There’s no God where I've gone/There's no saints where I’ve been"), and the band brakes and bolts with earthy aplomb. Not an Airplane have made other records, but this one is so bold and accomplished, it feels like a debut.

Listen to "Speak In":

Related
• Photos: Random Notes

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."