Dreamy and introspective without being sentimental Salt Year is an absorbing listen. The tone is set with the double-tracked vocals of the affecting opener, “Eliza (Hue),” in which it’s made clear that he has passed through a particularly trying time — the bitter year of the title. But the album is about much more than that. Strung together, the songs serve as snapshots of joy, longing, and confusion as well as heartbreak and loss, and the lyrical complexity makes the album richer and more emotionally powerful as a result. A variety of instrumentation and dynamics are used precisely and effectively. Cymbals crash dramatically, horns punctuate key moments like exclamation points, and piano, fiddle, mandolin, and lap steel flesh out the songs before drifting off to expose their bones once again. Highlighting the tension sometimes obscured by the beauty of the melodies are Bathgate’s vocals, which are subtle yet intense. Brilliantly arranged and performed, Salt Year is more than the sum of its parts, and arguably Bathgate’s best work so far.