With Visions of Us on the Land, Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado is now 14 albums deep into a long career. In a climate full of “next big things,” Jurado is a perennial safe bet—he’s been recording lovely, understated, vaguely psychedelic folk rock for nearly two decades. But the collaboration he launched with producer and The Shins/The Arcs member Richard Swift on 2010’s Saint Bartlett pumped a new, ragged energy into Jurado’s music, and it’s never been as fruitful as it is on Visions of Us on the Land. The album’s title is telling—Jurado approaches these 17 songs as if he’s looking toward the beach from a tiny boat on lapping waves, the figures he sees on land are fuzzy and far off, and his voice is full of longing to paddle back to shore. “I lost my mind, so I stepped out for a time,” he sings on “QACHINA.” “Went for a walk on a long road to unwind. I met myself there, saying ‘Go home.’” Jurado’s closest contemporary on Visions of Us is Nick Drake, though his songs come wrapped in far more sonic layers. These are visions of sadness and love, from a far-off place.