ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO "Real Animal" Back Porch

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO"Real Animal"Back Porch

AFTER HEPATITIS C nearly killed him in 2003, alt-country-deity-cum-mainstream-curiosity Alejandro Escovedo quit making merely "good" records and started making indelible ones -- albums that approach the kinetic wallop and unbridled emotion of his live shows.

"Real Animal" is his second effort since his near-death experience, and if it's still not quite a substitute for catching the 57-year-old road warrior in concert, it is a career high and an excellent point-of-entry for newcomers.

It's also a collection of paradoxes. Escovedo gets reflective in the lyrics while stomping the accelerator musically and creates the most nakedly autobiographical songs of his career. For the first time, he uses a co-writer (longtime friend Chuck Prophet) for the whole album. It works: The track "Sensitive Boys" sways with the bitter introspection of "Street Hassle"-era Lou Reed, and Escovedo invests such retro rockers as "Chelsea Hotel '78" and "Chip N' Tony" with enough I-was-there conviction to prevent the record from curdling into pastiche despite its debt to his '70s glam and punk heroes.

Producer Tony Visconti brazenly quotes his own nearly 30-year-old synthesizer part from David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" on "Golden Bear." In it, Escovedo grapples with his illness, asking without an ounce of discernible self-pity, "Why me?"

Later he declares, "We know we're not in tune, we know we'll never be great." That one's called "Nuns Song," after the San Francisco punk outfit that launched Escovedo's career a million weary miles ago. The Nuns opened for Sex Pistols in 1978, at the latter's last performance (well, until their short-lived '90s comeback). Escovedo hasn't just outlasted the headliner from that long-ago night. He has lived long enough to prove himself wrong.

-- Chris Klimek

Appearing Saturday with Vandaveer at the 9:30 club (202-393-0930,http://www.930.com). Doors open at 7 p.m.