This year, Grant-Lee Phillips will release his 12th solo album, the self-produced In the Hour of Dust. It’s a work that doesn’t shy away from the big themes of contemporary life. “The mood on this album is contemplative,” says Phillips, “trying to find meaning in an age of confusion, feeling your way through the blinding dust of unreality.” In the Hour of Dust is also a highly intimate affair; both in its musical presentation and the highly personal – often autobiographical – lyrics in the songs, all set, the songwriter admits, “against this larger discordant backdrop.”