Gary Clark Jr. seems dead set on proving he’s not swayed by the accolades that tout him as the guitar-shredding star at the center of a modern bluesrock revival. Granted, on any given night, he’ll uncork a hard-edged cover of Albert King’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” like nobody’s business, while his breakout Blak and Blu and the ornery follow-up The Story of Sonny Boy Slim both found him extending his reach into soul and hip-hop with unvarnished honesty. This Land embraces all that and more— sometimes to the point of coming apart at the seams, which positions the album almost perfectly as a window to these uncertain times. The message doesn’t get much starker than the title track; over a murky, Funkadelic-ized vibe of foreboding, Clark sings the opening verse with an old-school, Texasstyle Geto Boys cadence: “Paranoid and pissed off/ Now that I got the money/ Fifty acres and a Model A/ Right in the middle of Trump country.” Further on, hard-boiled acid funk propels “I Walk Alone” and “Feed the Babies”—two standouts that recall Childish Gambino’s moody Awaken, My Love! (On “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” from that same album, Clark rips a wah-soaked solo worthy of Eddie Hazel.) Along the way, he dips into psychedelic soul (“I Got My Eyes on You”), heavy rock (“Low Down Rolling Stone”), Stax nostalgia (“When I’m Gone”), modern R&B (“Don’t Wait Til Tomorrow,” “Pearl Cadillac”) and Berry-meetsBowie glam punk (“Gotta Get Into Something”) with a dizzying shift of gears. Even for Clark, the flow can get a bit too schizophrenic (case in point: the reggae toss-off “Feelin’ Like a Million”), but with the ampedup rhythm section of bassist Mike Elizondo and drummer Brannen Temple behind him, as well as Sheila E (percussion) and the ever-capable Jon Deas (keyboards) in the mix, This Land comes across as a cohesive statement that says, “Don’t even try to corner me.” As shy as Clark is in person, he’s a demon when the recording light is on.