After a difficult period—personally, financially and artistically—following 2010’s The Brutalist Bricks, Ted Leo and his wife left New York for a fresh start. Driven by spirited, Jam- and Clash-like power pop (“Anthems of None,” “Run to the City”), The Hanged Man feels both troubled but hopeful, the kind of album you could just as well pump your fist to as follow with a dictionary. Most striking is “Lonsdale Avenue,” a nervy, Springsteenian ballad about the modest victories of equally modest people.
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