Hearts and Bones

was a commercial disaster, the lowest-charting new studio album of 's career. It is also his most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best. It retains a personal vision, one largely devoted to the challenges of middle-aged life, among them a renewed commitment to love; the title song was a notable testament to new romance, while reflected on romantic discord. Elsewhere, was his meditation on 's murder and how it related to the mythology of music. Musically, moved forward and backward simultaneously, taking off from the style of his last two albums into his old loves of and while also incorporating current sounds with such new collaborators as music producer and minimalist composer . The result was 's most impressive collection in a decade and the most underrated album in his catalog. ~ William Ruhlmann