Luke Winslow­King’s fifth album is clearly a divorce/breakup album, and has everything you’d expect from an album of that nature. Song calling his ex out by name? Check (“Esther Please”). Defiant “love me again or go away” song? Check (“Watch Me Go”). Song threatening to murder his rival? Check (“Louisiana Blues”). Emotional bottoming­-out song? Check (“Heartsick Blues”). And yet, when you put it all together, this may be the least depressing and most encouraging breakup album you’ve ever heard.

If he’d made this album a few years ago, it might have had a haunting, old­-timey sound. But while he’s still informed by blues and gospel, his sound is now fully electric, and he’s never been more confident as a lead singer (which is partly a matter of necessity: the Esther in question was his vocal as well as romantic partner). Lovers of modern, soulful roots-­rock will key right into the opening “On My Way” (which evokes Warren Haynes’ solo projects), and anyone who wishes Clapton would get a little grittier should go for “Watch Me Go.” Even the lyrically miserable “Heartsick Blues” has a lovely instrumental refrain, on violin and acoustic guitar, which adds the reassurance the singer can’t find.

Tellingly, there aren’t any real ballads on the album, which goes for a more inspiring mood: It begins and ends with songs about getting over it, with two swaggering rockers (including the title track, a blues wailer whose lyrics could apply to any kind of hard times). The finale, “No More Crying Today,” is positively beatific, its lyrics reinforced by elegant slide guitar. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to break up with someone, just so you can feel this good afterward.