Damien Jurado with St. Yuma

Play on, theres no such thing as better days, Damien Jurado sings on Roger, the sweeping wash of a song that opens Reggae Film Star, his 18th full length album and second release from Jurados own Maraqopa Records label. But as he enters his 25th year as a recording artist, its clear these are, at the least, very good days for Jurado on the creative front. In these 12 songs, which evoke half-recalled dreams and overheard conversations, the cosmic rushes headlong into the autobiographical and specific moments on the clock fade from past to future to scenes set only in the eternal now. Playing out like a backlot documentary filmed on the location of an unnamed TV or film setmaybe a sitcom taping, or perhaps its a low budget science fiction B-movie, or could it be a talk show?the album is populated by performers awaiting call times, camera operators praying for their shot, and studio audiences rapt with anticipation. The stars here eschew glitz and glamor. Instead, they wander grocery stores and parking lots in the verdant Pacific Northwest and the desert Southwest, looking for payphones and a sense of purpose. Produced by Jurado with multi-instrumentalist Josh Gordon and recording engineer Alex Bush at Sonikwire studio in Irvine,CA, Jurados home away from home and musical headquarters, the records compositions are among the most musically rich in his vast discography, encompassing romantic AM gold, 60s psychedelia, driving rock s unmistakable voice, at once intimately present and ghostly, grounded in the here and now but capable, at any moment, of drifting off into the divinatory. Following threads established by 2021s The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, the album sees Jurado embracing his auteur era, penning vignettes that arrive with little fanfare and depart quicker than you might suspect, only to linger long after they wrap. Seeking a skeleton key to decipher the action is beside the pointJurados songs are worlds meant to be lived in, not picked apartbut on the bea