Because David Berman is the reclusive singer-songwriter behind legendary indie band Silver Jews and the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Actual Air, you might approach his self-titled debut as Purple Mountains expecting to encounter inscrutable symbolism. The album -- Berman's first since abruptly ending Silver Jews in 2009 and essentially going off the grid -- will immediately disabuse you of this notion. Berman became an underground icon by seasoning his sideways insights with references to depressed ponies and trains across the sea. But if his shambolic indie rock koans were often oblique, he's also the poet who once wrote, "I am trying to get at something/ and I want to talk very plainly to you/ so that we are both comforted by the honesty." On Purple Mountains he embraces that impulse to a radical extent and comes away with a devastating self-portrait, delivered one bracingly literal observation at a time.