‘Heavy Soul’ is the album I had hoped Joanne Shaw Taylor would make for a while. Over the last decade or so, it seemed like someone forced her to decide for each release whether she wanted to make a tight, songwriting-focused record or a more jam-heavy album that focuses on her skills as a guitarist. Given that she is a great singer, a fantastic guitarist and an incredible songwriter, it’s perfectly possible to do both simultaneously, and ‘Heavy Soul’ is all the evidence you need. It’s an excellent rootsy album on which blues, soul, and bits of americana and rock come together.

If you have as many strengths as Taylor does, showcasing all of them without the result turning into an incoherent mess can be quite the challenge. That may be why previous albums focused on specific strengths of hers. ‘Nobody’s Fool’ was a pure songwriting album, and a good one at that, but it could haved used some of the guitar workouts that its predecessor ‘Reckless Heart’ had in spades. What truly makes ‘Heavy Soul’ Taylor’s best album since 2012’s ‘Almost Always Never’, possibly her best ever, is that the different sides of her musical personality enhance each other here.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the incredible opening track ‘Sweet ‘Lil Lies’. From the stinging guitar theme in its intro to its fantastic chorus and the delightfully tense lead-up to it, the song is laden with memorable hooks. At the same time, the two fiery guitar solos lift the song to a higher level from a performance standpoint. The beefy blues rock riff upon which ‘Devil in Me’ is built also makes ‘Heavy Soul’ a bit more guitar-forward than its predecessor, as does the incredible guitar solo on Taylor’s greasily funky take on the Joe Simon classic ‘Drowning in a Sea of Love’.

The album features more than rootsy riffrockers, however. The upbeat soul-pop of closing track ‘Change of Heart’ – think Bill Withers’ ‘Lovely Day’ with more guitars – feels like an upgrade of ‘Runaway’ from the previous album, while the breezy guitar pop of ‘A Good Goodbye’ proves that Taylor is capable of transcending genre boundaries. Purists craving a somewhat more traditional take on the blues might want to ease themselves into the album with the slithering rhythms of ‘Black Magic’, while I am particularly fond of the laid-back grooves of ‘Wild Love’ and the title track. Every song is elevated by Taylor’s intense alto and strong guitar chops.

For all its impassioned guitar playing, ‘Heavy Soul’ serves as a perfect example of my long-held belief that the best blues musicians are also excellent songwriters. Joanne Shaw Taylor certainly is, and she is truly one of the best of her generation in either field. ‘Heavy Soul’ is without a doubt my favorite album of hers since the wildly eclectic ‘Almost Always Never’, and it might even surpass that one in terms of being a good album listening experience. It’s also easier to imagine these songs coming alive on stage than those on ‘Nobody’s Fool’. Make sure to check whether they do if you get the chance.

Recommended tracks: ‘Sweet ‘Lil Lies’, ‘Drowning in a Sea of Love’, ‘Wild Love’