From song to song and album to album, Neil Hagerty's post-Royal Trux music has thrived on tangents. On his Fat Possum debut, however, his music comes full circle as he revisits and refreshes some of the sounds from his past. Hagerty recorded Knuckleball Express in eight days, and in the best possible way, it sounds like it. With its crunchy guitars and a fuzzy, roomy sound courtesy of producer Clay Jones, the album harks back to the catchier side of the Howling Hex's output in the 2000s. Hagerty sounds much looser and more candid on Knuckleball Express than he did back then, or on 2019's Trux reunion album White Stuff or on the still-fascinating "New Border Sound" of 2016's Denver. He doesn't get much more direct -- musically or emotionally -- than he does on "Lies," a garagey, pointed cautionary tale that still packs plenty of literal and metaphorical meaning into the chorus "If you wanna die/Believe in lies." Here and on the rollicking "Another Mr. Chicken," he's joined by vocalist/guitarist Nicole Lawrence. While having a female counterpoint has been a consistent part of Hagerty's music for decades, she follows his whims more ably than some of his previous collaborators. She shifts from gritty on the previously mentioned songs to honeyed and husky on "City in the Country," a sweetly scuffed duet that bids farewell to an addictive relationship, and on "Share a Name," where the twang in her voice and the guitars is a great addition to the album's palette. The more unfettered Knuckleball Express gets, the more natural it sounds. The rangy boogie rock of "Words" is about as definitive of the Howling Hex's music as it's possible to get, as is "North Aquarian," where Lawrence's eerie vocals sound like they're coming from another dimension as Hagerty solos into the sunset. The album's pieces come together in a satisfying whole on "Heavy Curtains," which, even for a Hagerty song, undergoes a surprising amount of twists and turns in under three minutes. Occasionally, Knuckleball Express' loose ends threaten to unravel, but for the most part, the album is held together by the feeling that Hagerty is having more fun making music than he has in some time.