After A Detour, Land Of Talk's Elizabeth Powell Finds A New Way Home

Seven years ago, Elizabeth Powell lost her joy. As the singer and guitarist for indie rock group Land of Talk, Powell had seen her share of success: Between 2006 and 2010, the band released two EPs and two albums and toured with bands like The Decemberists and Broken Social Scene. But setbacks weren't far off. Powell had to contend with Land of Talk's frequent lineup changes, a vocal polyp that nearly robbed her of her ability to sing and an exhausting cycle of writing, recording and touring.

After the release of 2010's Cloak and Cipher, Powell says, she started doubting her career path. "I think that because I had been a performer for so long, and I've been writing music since teenagehood, that I stopped listening," she says. "I think that I stopped being the music fan." So Powell decided to take some time off and retreat to her bucolic Canadian hometown, unsure when — or if — Land of Talk would return.

But music had a way of pulling her back. A series of intense events — both fortunate and unfortunate — rekindled Powell's focus and sparked a new chapter for Land of Talk. The result is , the band's impressive third album, out Friday. is full of songs Powell has been writing, in one way or another, over the last seven years. The time off seems to have added a centripetal force to her smart, dense indie rock; feels more grounded or centered than the band's earlier work. The album radiates a commitment to its own existence but takes pleasure in uncertainty;