For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music. Most recently, she has been the vocalist and guitarist of the acclaimed garage-pop power trio Ex Hex (Merge) but has also been a member of the seminal post-punk band Autoclave (Dischord), celebrated leader of the deeply influential Helium (Matador), multifaceted solo artist (Matador, Lookout!, Kill Rock Stars), and a co-founder of the supergroup Wild Flag (Merge).

Described by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein as “Mary Shelley with a guitar” and dubbed “a trailblazer and an innovator” by Lindsey Jordan a.k.a. Snail Mail, Timony has distinguished herself as one of her generation’s most influential artists. Although she has remained a cult hero and critical favorite since the early ’90s, Timony’s many triumphs have long been counterbalanced by crippling doubt and self-nullification.

Her fifth solo album, Untame the Tiger, approaches these emotions head-on. This is her first solo release in 15 years and is a startling document of an artist fully coming into her own power during the fourth decade of her career. It is the product of lessons learned during life-altering struggle.

The mystical, acoustic-driven Untame the Tiger emerged after the dissolution of a long-term relationship and was bookended by the deaths of Timony’s father and mother. The album was recorded during a two-year period during which she was the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. The tectonic psychic shift Mary experienced due to this loss informs many of her lyrics.

The standout track, “No Thirds”, is a song about losing everything and having to keep on going. Timony explains, “I wanted the verses to sound like a wide-open barren space, like driving across a desert, because that is what the song is about—losing people and the feeling that your future is a giant, wide-open blank space.”

The stripped-back acoustic instrumentation of “The Guest” conjures Sweetheart-era Byrds. Timony describes it as a song sung directly to loneliness: “I was imagining loneliness as a house guest who keeps knocking on your door. I thought it would be funny to say loneliness is the only one who always comes back.”