It’s been four years since Matthew Ward’s last solo LP, but he’s seemingly spent that time whittling on his front porch. More Rain, his eighth album, begins with a one-minute rainstorm sample, wind chimes rattling in the background. It’s a breezy, appropriate reintroduction: Though the album features a parade of guest musicians—Neko Case, k.d. lang, erstwhile R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck—it’s some of his most intimate work in years. “Pirate Dial” is the apex of Ward’s career, summarizing his assorted musical strengths: the ramshackle acoustic strum, the minimal sunshine-pop flourishes of synth and electric guitar, that trademark velvety rasp coated in molasses and rubbed with sandpaper. Ward’s recent albums and collaborative projects (She & Him, Monsters of Folk) have expanded his reach beyond the requisite folk, blues and Americana. More Rain follows suit, albeit tranquilly: “Confession” sounds like Joy Division shacked up with Paul Simon, and “Slow Driving Man” is an atmospheric soft-rock epic highlighted by dissonant strings. But even at his most ambitious, Ward never pushes the dynamics or tempo too far. He mostly just sounds content, as if he stumbled into the studio after a well-earned rainy day catnap.