Allison Russell has been through hell. So why is her new album so damn joyful?

Allison Russell opens her exultant new album with a goodbye.

"So long, farewell, adieu, adieu," she sings, her voice as unbothered as a breeze, at the top of "Springtime," the jaunty folk-soul number that invites listeners into her sophomore LP, "The Returner." A Canadian-born singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays clarinet and banjo, among other things, Russell is describing her exit from "that tunnel I went through," and anyone who heard her acclaimed 2021 solo debut, "Outside Child," is sure to know what she means.

That album directly addressed the sexual abuse Russell suffered as a child by her adoptive father; it also earned several Grammy nominations and beat higher-profile efforts from Brandi Carlile and the duo of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to win album of the year at the Americana Music Association's annual awards ceremony in 2022.

Now Russell is moving on: After "Springtime's" callback to that dark chapter — "I used to think that I was doomed/ To die young, to be consumed," she confesses — "The Returner" maps