Out singer/songwriter Tom Goss veers into unchartered creative waters with his new album, slated for an Aug. 2 release. (Photo courtesy Venfield 8)

Tom Goss new album 2016

Tom Goss should be a familiar name to D.C.-area music fans. The LGBT singer/songwriter/guitarist was a longtime mainstay of the local scene before relocating to Los Angeles last year.

We last heard from Goss earlier this year when his haunting reimagining of the Dusty Springfield classic “Son of a Preacher Man,” set to a stirring and provocative video in support of the Trevor Project suicide prevention initiative, went viral and received enormous acclaim. That success set the stage for “What Doesn’t Break,” Goss’ sixth full-length album and his first since 2014’s excellent “Wait.” He returns to the region for a show at Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington on Sunday, Aug. 7 (details here).

“What Doesn’t Break,” slated for an Aug. 2 release, is a departure for Goss, who is known for his often buoyant acoustic-guitar based power pop. The new album is a progression into deeper and more personal material with an edgy and experimental vibe. He collaborates with producer Marr Zimm, who helps create a complex and dense soundscape of electronic elements, brass and strings weaving through the layers of Goss’s excellent guitar-work. The ambition of the music is matched by the intensely personal songwriting and powerful vocal performances. “What Doesn’t Break” exhibits clear artistic progression for Goss while retaining the genuine heart, sincerity and strong melodic sensibility for which he’s always been known.

Goss expresses raw emotion and vulnerability on a level far beyond what he’s presented previously, and it wasn’t always an easy process.

The album opens with the jittery “Wake Alive,” with Goss singing the verses in his resonant lower register before breaking into an anthemic arena-rock chorus. “Thirteen” is a harrowing stare into the rearview at sometimes painful youthful turmoil and how those experiences shaped the man he is today. “Holes in the Wall” is a heartrending break-up song set to shimmery strings, keyboards and a lushly beautiful choral vocal arrangement.

The ominous “Someone Else” is a tense and piercingly direct rocker seething with rage and venom. In a bit of inspired sequencing, he follows the angriest piece on the album with perhaps the loveliest and most heartbreaking, “Mama.” Goss delivers arguably the album’s finest vocal with a song that begins as an exquisite acoustic ballad with soaring strings before exploding into a propulsive, wrenching catharsis that explores the painful reality of the vast distance that can engulf families over divergent beliefs and an inability to come to terms with love as it’s meant to be.

The synth-driven “All My Love” is a late highlight, an achingly devotional ballad layered with sublime vocal harmonies. The biggest sonic departure on an album loaded with them is the electro-pop finale “Long Way Back Home.” It ends the collection with a philosophical and nostalgic bent, appropriate for the poignant musical journey that has unfolded over the course of these 10 songs.

Some fans may be startled by the intensity and restlessness that Goss delivers here, but the emotion is so real and the songs are so expertly crafted that it’s hard to avoid getting caught up in the album’s dramatic sweep. It’s a triumph for Tom Goss, a leap forward that’s both intimate and exciting.