Does the six-year, multi-producer struggle behind this record show up in the final sound, or does it feel remarkably cohesive?

I think the lyrics and themes create a cohesive album. The only song that sounds a bit surprising is the title track. It has a pop sensibility that sits outside the other songs. It actually kind of sounds like a Sheryl Crow song to me.

This was my first and only listen to a LW album, so I don't have much to compare with in that way. I saw her once in concert, heard her periodically on XPN, so not much there either. But as a relative newbie to her sound, I thought the album hung together well: Enough variety that I even thought 'Huh, kind of early Dylanesque' on one song (Drunken Angel) and resonate with the Sheryl Crow comparison, but also felt a consistency in voice and vision so wouldn't have guessed that there was so much time and mix of producers in its making.