Welcome to 'Maraqopa'

Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado has been recording since 1995, but he’s been on the hottest streak of his career since hooking up with producer Richard Swift for 2010’s “Saint Bartlett.”

“Maraqopa,” a record named for a far-off fantasy world Jurado constructed, sees the development of the pair’s relationship to its possible apex.

With Swift’s assistance behind the knobs, music and lyrics seem of equal importance for Jurado — and each pursuit is as well-executed as it has ever been in his career.

Side A is far more suggestive of the album’s advertised maraqopic dreamscape than Side B. Opener “Nothing Is the News” spirals and rambles, building layers upon layers of guitar and vocals until an almost atonal climax brings the tension to its tipping point, and “Reel to Reel” is the most experimental track on a record already predisposed to experimentation.

Meanwhile, the back half roots itself in reality. “Working Titles” muses about what it’s like in Washington, while “So On, Nevada” ponders a move to its title state. What the album gives away in otherworldliness it regains in sheer beauty.

Jurado may have dreamt up another world for “Maraqopa,” but he didn’t leave this one entirely in the process. This is good news. We need him.