“Whenever you’re here, you’re alive” are the first words sung on Dynamite Steps, the fifth album from Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers collective, and the group\’s first in five years.

The Twilight Singers’ previous release, the acclaimed confessional opus Powder Burns, came out in 2006. Dynamite Steps is clearly the next chapter, a whole new level of catharsis and progress, evocatively cramming all the highs and lows of the maverick singer-songwriter’s past half-decade into unexpected sonic trapdoors. “Shot on location” at various locales significant to Dulli’s life, you can hear the sense of place emanating up from the grooves of Dynamite Steps. Here, the weary nighttime decadence of New Orleans rubs up against the oppressive sunshine of Los Angeles and the desolation of Joshua Tree’s desert vistas.

Dynamite Steps explores the thin line between life and death, mortality and immortality, resignation and celebration—that mythical moment when your life flashes before your eyes, drawn out here over the course of eleven songs. The album’s forty-three minutes prove an unflinching odyssey through the dark side, but one that’s ultimately redemptive in its scope and power.

Various guests contribute to the new album, including: Ani DiFranco, Joseph Arthur, Petra Haden, Carina Round, Nick McCabe (The Verve) and Mark Lanegan.