The 13 songs on The Crying Tree, the Blood Oranges' fine new album, suggest the trajectory of a love affair, from the glorious, headlong rush of "Halfway 'Round the World" to the quiescent waiting of "Shine." Finding new metaphors for romantic problems – "You have to maintain everything you do/Just to make sure it belongs to you," Jim Ryan sings on "Handle Breaks" – the songs build stories of doomed love in unsparing detail. They take place after the fact, at the time when you attempt to work out where things have gone wrong.

The band's three songwriter vocalists – Ryan, guitarist Mark Spencer and bassist Cheri Knight – sound best when they bring their voices together in plangent, sweet-sour harmonies. Knight has the strongest solo voice, a strong, plaintive mezzo-soprano, not unlike Linda Thompson's. She is also responsible for the album's strongest tunes, "Hell's Half Acre," a crunching rocker of spurned love, and the haunting "Shine." Ryan has a serviceable voice that sounds best on slower, more introspective numbers. His more upbeat songs tend to lose their focus in a rush of energy.

While the mood of Crying Tree is dark and brooding, the Blood Oranges' music is a happy marriage of the reedy whine of Ryan's mandolin and Spencer's taut, ringing guitar lines; the result is a sound with snatches of reels, waltzes and rock. When the Blood Oranges get this mix right, which they do with an almost breathtaking ease, they find ways to make country-rock fusion seem like an idea with unlimited potential. (RS 685)

STEVEN MIRKIN