Singer Chris Robley beautifully captures state of the union

“A Filament in the Wilderness of What Comes Next,” Chris Robley (Cutthroat Pop Records) Chris Robley’s music is beautiful when it’s angry.

The Maine-based singer-songwriter bemoans the state of the nation on “A Filament in the Wilderness of What Comes Next,” a seven-song collage of characters vexed and perplexed by a society in decline.

Robley’s weighty words — he’s an award-winning poet — are made even more powerful because they’re paired with equally engrossing melodies. It makes for the loveliest kind of blues regarding disparity, hypocrisy, racism and American retreat in a foreign land.

Throughout, Robley’s way with a tune is a giver of goosebumps. The melodies are as effortlessly irresistible as an old folk song, the sort sung when the stakes are high, such as “We Shall Overcome.” Robley’s music asks: Can we overcome?