After the success of her post-grunge album Past Life Martyred Saints (2011) and the prophetic The Future's Void (2014), Erika M. Anderson was quickly compared to female rock figures like Kim Gordon, Cat Power, or PJ Harvey, while her feminist activism places her directly in the lineage of the Riot Grrrls. For this third album, Exile In The Outer Ring, EMA retreated to a basement in suburban Portland to better observe our contemporary world. She evokes the alienation of the American working class, its poverty and pervasive fears, and the brutality of capitalism with frightening realism but profound empathy. A dark and powerful portrait of America in 2017.