Her 2016 debut, Emotions and Math, was a spectacular calling card, and by rights its successor, Devotion, should have established her as a serious global talent in 2020. As it turns out, releasing an album right at the beginning of a pandemic isn’t the ideal career move. Surely it’s time for Margaret Glaspy to have her moment? To be fair, the California-born, New York-based artist is probably never destined for household-name fame, but her third record does set her apart from her peers in a multitude of ways.

Several of these songs (many of them first takes) have an enjoyably coarse grunge influence, best heard on the album’s lead single, Act Natural, and the bristling Get Back. There is an atonal, off-kilter undercurrent amid the burst of indie rock on I Didn’t Think So, but Glaspy tempers the rawness with songs of tenderness and vulnerability; the acoustic-led Memories and the soulful Turn the Engine, songs inspired by grief, showcase her talent for writing eloquent emotional songs as well as bolshie indie-rock numbers.

Her lyric sheet swings between lovelorn ballads, infatuation and the darker moments of a relationship, while Female Brain is a punk-laced, pointedly tongue-in-cheek song about her experience in the music industry. Perhaps there will always be a bit of a best-kept-secret quality to Glaspy, but as long as she keeps releasing albums as good as this one, that’s okay, too.