Roky Erickson’s first album of new material in 14 years True Love Cast Out All Evil features fellow Austin, Texans Okkervil River as his backing band and Will Sheff as producer, a task that included weaving in “found-sound and archival recordings culled from Erickson’s home videos and recordings made [while institutionalized at] the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane [for marijuana possession].” It might be an unpopular opinion, but outside vintage 13th Floor Elevators, my favorite Erickson material are the fuzzy solo recordings on Reverend Of Karmic Youth and Holiday Inn Tapes and the demos and outtakes of Mad Dog, so I’m surprised I’m enjoying True Love Cast Out All Evil‘s polish. The first available taste was “Goodbye Sweet Dreams,” featuring a haunting mix of clean guitars and escalating noise accents atop something that was initially fragile and spare. “Be And Bring Me Home” — a song fans will recognize from Never Say Goodbye, a collection of tracks recorded between 1971 (when he was still at Rusk) and 1985 — accrues stately, anthemic, twanging piano-and-horn-lined layers that work beautifully.

• Roky Erickson & Okkervil River – “Be And Bring Me Home”Download

And here’s True Love‘s previously mentioned “Goodbye Sweet Dreams.”

• Roky Erickson & Okkervil River – “Goodbye Sweet Dreams”Download

An acoustic take.

True Love Cast Out All Evil is out 4/20 via Anti-. If you don’t know Erickson’s story, you’ll find more background info at truelovecastoutallevil.com. He and Okkervil have some shows coming up:

04/24 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theater
05/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Mayan Theater
05/20 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
05/25 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall