Coming a full 12 years after its predecessor Outlaster, Nina Nastasia’s seventh album is actually her first truly solo record. All her — brilliant — previous work had been overseen by her then partner Kennan Gudjonsson, who it transpired had been a coercive and controlling presence in her life. Riderless Horse addresses all of this, and Gudjonsson’s death, with horribly unflinching lyrics like “I guess I’ll just stay in hell with you if this is love / Throw a punch or two and take a few then rise above,” and “The two of us make one / Deep in the shit trying to crawl out of this dung / The stink of it overwhelms the good we’ve done.” But for all the grimness and bleakness, it shows Nastasia more determined than ever to use her words and voice to see the world better and clearer, and as such offers sparks of hope, redemption and new ways to see the world among the grit and pain.