The life of the troubadour is many wonderful things. Conducive to lasting, non-platonic relationships, it is not. Mercifully, as evidenced by the eight original tracks that compile Keegan McInroe’s eighth solo album Neon John – and the innumerable laments of troubadours before and alongside him – failed romances are exceptionally well-suited song fodder.

Blending strokes of autobiography, gossip, imagination, bawdy humor, and stoicism, Neon John paints a series of seven misadventures in romance, alongside a rollicking, bluesy co-write with frequent collaborator Matt Tedder (“Blackout Beauty”), celebrating the fuzzy, carnal impermanence one might embrace in the wake of continued disappointments in love. Indeed, despite the album’s overarching theme of a frustrated romantic, Neon John rarely lingers in heaviness, solemnity, or sadness, instead choosing a broader perspective that allows for a sort of amused bemusement and a grinning melancholy, unsurprised, and thankful for another good story to tell.