Here we go! Jim White’s fifth album is a breezy alt-country affair, filled with the usual darkness and then a few odd upbeat numbers to balance things out. Fifteen years since his debut, Wrong-Eyed Jesus, and still melancholic? Understandably so. While writing the album, White’s wife (and mother of his children) left him for another man, which probably explains the nature of songs like “The Way of Alone” and “Epilogue to a Marriage.” The hour long Where It Hits You begins with the reflective sombre hopefulness of “Chase the Dark Away” and into the perfect Sunday afternoon tune, “Sunday’s Refrain.” At midway, White delivers an unexpected series of delightfully cheerful songs, even using flutes, chimes and triumphant stuck-in-your-head whistling (“What Rocks Will Never Know”), only to bring us back down just as unexpectedly with the last third of the album. It feels a bit meandering at times, but “What Rocks Will Never Know” and “Here We Go!” sure are a lot of fun. (Yep Roc Records, yeproc.com) Cole Snyder