Kevin Bronson on January 5th, 2018

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Lauren Ruth Ward’s debut “Well, Hell” — originally scheduled for a 2017 release — will be out Feb. 9, and as rock albums go, it’s a bundle of dynamite with the fuses lit. Ward’s vocal pyrotechnics (one local publication called them a mix of Janis Joplin and Courtney Barnett) are the big attraction, but it’s the little wrinkles — in instrumentation and lyrics — that make it more than just a good classic rock album fronted by a dynamo singer. Cowbell, gang background vocals and all, “Sideways” is the fifth song to emerge from the album, and Ward calls it “an anthem for those who get lost while acclimating to a new life. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, you gotta roll with it but not let the people walking faster than you distract you.” The song comes with a whimsical video, co-directed by the singer and Tess O’Connor, and starring Ward and bandmates Eduardo Rivera, Liv Slingerland and India Pascucci, along with a host of pals from the L.A. scene. All figure to be present and accounted for when Ward, ostensibly released from her straitjacket, kicks off her residency Monday at the Echo.

||| Watch: The video for “Sideways”

||| Live: Lauren Ruth Ward does the free Monday residency at the Echo starting Jan. 8.

||| Previously: Live at the Bootleg Theater, “Well, Hell,” live at Chinatown Summer Nights, Bands to Watch, “Make Love to Myself”