For some, Died Pretty never bettered their first album, Free Dirt, and the astonishing run of singles that surrounded it (“Mirror Blues,” “Out of the Unknown,” “Stoneage Cinderella,” the Next to Nothing EP). They may have a point, though there’s plenty to recommend within the rest of the group’s catalogue. But Free Dirt captures Died Pretty at a pivotal moment in their career, harnessing the expansive, Doors-ian psychedelia that they excelled at, while also amplifying their capacity to writing pop songs that made the most of Brett Myers’s flinty, droning guitar, and Ron Peno’s voice, which swooped from declamatory to tender in a measure of breaths. You can hear their love of Dylan pretty clearly, and a stylish and aesthetic alignment with the Paisley Underground groups (The Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, Green On Red), though honestly, Died Pretty did it better.