This may be his first record in nearly a decade, but Dwight Yoakam sounds anything but absent on this spirited and sometimes surprising collection of California-informed country. The denim cowboy produced the record himself and co-wrote most of its tracks, throwing in a few eclectic covers—Cake’s “Bound Away,” The Byrds’ “Time Between,” and The Carter Family’s “Keep on the Sunny Side”—for good measure. Highlights on the record include the title track, a dusky and loping wish for better days, and “A Dream That Never Ends,” a lyrically spare but sonically potent rocker with a sneakily soulful melody. Of the covers, Yoakam transforms the 2011 Cake cut the most notably, infusing the original’s DIY jangle with the laid-back sunny vibe that characterizes so much of his catalog. The lone guest on the LP is country superfan Post Malone, who joins Yoakam on the twangy two-stepper “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom),” which Yoakam wrote specifically for him.