" data-original-title="" title="">Rob Garcia's Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planetis as densely constructed and provoking as its title. Despite the socially conscious themes that its track titles, lyrics, and multi-layered musical journeys explore, Garcia has made clear this is not a protest album. At least not in the typical sense.

It is not advocacy. It does not call for denial, dissent, or even dismissal of the social ills the album's thirteen pieces directly reference. It avows neither acceptance nor rebellion. It presents the violence, political discord, environmental disaster, racial discrimination, and economic disparity of our times as realities neither avoidable nor alterable, only something to be absorbed and navigated in an attempt to find within the tumult some resting place of solace.

Form following function, the thirteen pieces are not grounded in the upheaval of style, deconstruction of genre, or the jagged dissonances often associated with protest music. Instead, Garcia's compositions and lithe, solid rhythms reflect the core traditions of jazz, presenting musical terrain for the quartet—and guests—to navigate and explore, establishing a constant sense of tension and seeking. These are individuals attempting to chart a course through the unalterable realities that define their existence, grasping for connection, and holding on to those moments of self-constructed relationships and meaning, with eyes wide open at what is happening around them.

It is also an album of significant depth and breadth, executed with aplomb. Tracks range from the lyrical rendition of Stephen Foster's classic "Beautiful Dreamer," on which