One of the best writers to ever emerge out of the Boston music scene, Ellis Paul's first new studio album in five years was built around a bond between the singer and his fans.

It was Paul's loyal fan base that raised more than $100,000 to fund the recording project and their guy lived up to his end of the bargain, delivering one of the finest albums of his career.

The 15-song offering is filled with Paul's exquisite craftsmanship, exemplified in the title track, one of five songs co-written with Sugarland's Kristian Bush. Paul turns some of life's most complicated situations into conversational beauty in the piano-backed track, which also features his soul-stirring vocals at their upper-octave finest.

Elsewhere, he covers miles of musical territory, rockin' out with pure Americana on "The Lights of Vegas;" shaking up a lusty storm on the banjo-backed set-opener "Annalee;" eventually mixing a radically reworked but downright playful version of the Patsy Cline classic "Walking After Midnight," with his own "Change;" before turning in a dreamlike soundscape of a duet with Bush on "Paper Dolls."

This sure sounds like the best $100,000 a singer's fans have spent in a long time.