The very first Palehound songs were acerbic and wired. They could be dark and ugly, even masochistic at times. "Vandalize my body if it helps you sleep soundly," Ellen Kempner begs on one of her best early tracks. The music she was making back then matched that energy: knotted guitars dripping with sourness and slime. But as Kempner has grown up and settled down, her songs have become less nervy and more quietly assured. Black Friday, Palehound's third full-length album, is her most accomplished yet. It trades in the slicing guitars that made Kempner so beloved for more pillowy arrangements that sound like something you could fall back on to keep warm. "I think I hate my body/ 'Til it's next to yours," she sings instead here -- something once accepting of harm now deserving of love.