Thao Nguyen’s energy has always been volatile, under pressure, and one open flame away from explosive. Well, it seems like somebody lit a match and let it all out on Know Better Learn Faster, her latest from Kill Rock Stars.

Nguyen and her band The Get Down Stay Down have pieced together an album composed of 13 tracks of the dirty pop that Nguyen has been perfecting since her 2005 debut Like the Linen. This just might be what she’s been striving for.

Know Better Learn Faster is an unabashed “break up album” of anti-love songs and anthems of getting over it. The first track, “The Clap,” is a quick 30-second intro that acts as a warning to the listener as well as the poor sap at the center of these songs. Nguyen warns “If this is how you want it/okay, okay,” before the story begins with “Cool Yourself.” From then on the album heats up before reaching a boiling point with “Body,” a track that finds Nguyen at her most furious before dropping off to a more mellow and somber sounds.

This is an incredibly self-aware album. The songs flow, each complementing the one that came directly before and the one following. Just as things get too raucous they’re brought down to a reasonable level, and when the songs have slowed down just enough, the mood and tempo are brought right back to a fever pitch. It’s not schizophrenic or scatterbrained, just sensibly structured.

(Kill Rock Stars, 1526 NE Alberta St. #231, Portland, OR 97211)