Katie Crutchfield’s new sobriety led to a move away from rollicking indie and toward a calmer, Americana-informed sound that reels you inFollow our countdown of the 50 best albums of 2020In March, Waxahatchee’s fifth album arrived accompanied by a neat narrative hook. Saint Cloud was the first record Katie Crutchfield had made since getting sober – a change that occasioned a move away from rollicking, emotionally volatile indie and toward a calmer Americana-informed sound. But, as Crutchfield spent most of the ensuing promo pointing out, this hardly qualified as a dramatic lifestyle overhaul – there was no addiction to battle, no ravaged organs to restore, no eye-watering debauchery to repent. Instead, she explained that her boozing had led to too many lie-ins. She simply wanted to get back to the “really productive person” she had formerly been.