Since making her debut in 2010, K.Flay has spun fearlessly detailed lyrics that show the bright and dark of the world in her head. For her second full-length Every Where Is Some Where, the L.A.-based alt-pop/hip-hop artist pushed deeper into introspection while adding an element of political commentary. The result is her most deliberate and dynamic work yet, a thrillingly vital album that channels the frenzy and anxieties of today’s world.

The follow-up to her 2016 EP Crush Me—whose lead single “Blood in the Cut” hit the top 5 on Alternative radio—Every Where Is Some Where amps up its defiant spirit with a densely textured yet gritty sound. “After Life as a Dog I was listening to so much late-’90s/early-’00s rock,” says K.Flay, aka Kristine Flaherty, referring to her 2014 full-length debut. “I was absorbing the energy of people like Karen O, Shirley Manson, and Emily Haines and feeling totally inspired by it, so there’s lots more live guitar, bass, and drums on this record.” Working with producers like Mike Elizondo (Twenty One Pilots, Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, Skylar Grey) and Tommy English (BØRNS, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Ladyhawke), K.Flay deftly infused the album with the same raw intensity she’s revealed in touring with such artists as Passion Pit, Icona Pop, Awolnation, and Theophilus London.

An inimitable lyricist who names novelist Marilynne Robinson among her inspirations, K.Flay also brought a literary sensibility to the making of Every Where Is Some Where. The album’s title, for instance, aims to “capture the flexibility of meaning, the way we fashion our own narratives,” according to Flaherty. “As a songwriter, that’s my main enterprise—looking at the events in my life and engaging in a constant framing and reframing of those events,” she says. “Experience is subjective. We get to decide what’s devastating, what’s beautiful, and what we do next. In the books of our lives, we are both protagonist and narrator. And narrators have incredible power.”

On the lead single from Every Where Is Some Where, K.Flay explores the power of lucid self-acceptance and delivers one of the album’s most blatantly upbeat tracks. Matching her seamless flow with sing-song melody, “High Enough” fuses breezy rhythm and gritty guitar lines into a hopeful meditation on keeping clear-headed.

“There are so many songs out there about getting fucked up,” says Flaherty of the song’s inspiration. “I think a part of me was asking the question: ‘What if I’m already high enough? What if I don’t need anything but what I’ve got?’ There are many moments in my life—whether it’s because of a person or a place—that I don’t want to feel altered or high or buzzed. I just want to feel exactly what I’m feeling.”

Kaleidoscopic in mood, Every Where Is Some Where also offers somber moments like “Mean It”—a stunningly vulnerable track built around K.Flay’s outpourings on love and family and lineage. Laced with subtle wisdom (“Remember what you love/So that when the world gets painful/You become your own god”), the starkly arranged song emerged from an especially cathartic writing session for Flaherty.

“I wrote ‘Mean It’ in my bedroom in L.A., pretty late at night…the song just came pouring out,” she recalls. “I remember I was crying while I wrote it, which is pretty unusual for me.” “It’s Just a Lot,” meanwhile, came to life while Flaherty was “thinking about the world and how it’s so big and beautiful and sad,” giving way to a blissfully uptempo but sweetly melancholic pop gem.