Smith, the former Columbia exec, says Lissie’s new work is, in many ways, “melodically, the strongest record she’s put out.”

But it was fun to hear the announcer pronounce the alternating vowels and consonants of his melodically polysyllabic name.

He’s recentered the band’s urgency from its head-rush musical intensity to Mr. Johnson’s voice, which is clearer and more melodically driven than before.