We hear the word ‘buzz’ alot these days, but thesefolks surely deserve it, withtheir fourth albumshowing a marked growth.These folk-ternativemournsters draw on folk iconoclasts likeFairport, Steeleye and the Incredible StringBand, while retaining a modern indiesensibility à la Sufjan/Devendra/Antony/Joanna. All of which sounds like rather aneither here-nor-there approach, butbelieve me, it works. Songs of raw and (let’sbe honest) immensely depressing nakedemotion, delivered by the sublime RachelUnthank. Songs of considerable originality(which this frankly cliché-riddled scribeseems unable to do justice). This is musicbeyond adjectives: just buy it.

Richard Mohr is a guest reviewer.