In 2003, as his solo career was gathering momentum, Alejandro Escovedo collapsed onstage, the victim of hard living and hepatitis C. A veteran of country-punk (Rank and File) and roots rock (True Believers), Escovedo has been fighting his way back ever since, and that near-death experience colors every note on The Boxing Mirror. On “Arizona,” he contemplates his last drink, riffing against a backdrop of synths and violin; on “Evita’s Lullaby,” he lets his mother speak again with her dead husband; and on “Died a Little Today,” the album’s saddest song, he writes about “the strange way we live / to have been here before / and leave nothing behind.” On acoustic and electric guitars, Escovedo, Jon Dee Graham (his former bandmate in True Believers), and David Pulkingham play a mix of power chords and echoing arpeggios, covering the range from romantic (“The Ladder”) to raucous (“Sacramento and Polk”). John Cale’s production leans closer to art-rock than it does to alt-country, and the Velvet Underground live on in Susan Voelz’s violin solos (spread throughout the album) and the disc’s darker, heavier songs, like “Break This Time” and “Take Your Place.” It’s a difficult, ambitious album for Escovedo, who rocks harder than he has in years, looking back on the lifestyle that almost killed him and forward to a new life of love and sobriety. (Back Porch, backporchrecords.com)