Almanac

The second Widowspeak record opens with the sounds of someone walking alone through a dark and rainy forest – maybe they’re just communing with nature, but you get the feeling that they might be safer inside with some tea and the doors locked. The band’s neurotically smoldering dream pop plays it cute and creepy – mashing up the doom-whispering Ambien-elegance of Mazzy Star, Fleetwood Mac at their witchiest, Cat Power at her clawiest, murder-tinged country ballads and steamy psychedelic vertigo. Molly Hamilton breathes all manner of fire into lines like “It’s getting kind of late/Don’t know what you’re waiting for,” and the overall Twin Peaks vibe is so thick David Lynch should get a production credit. Meanwhile, the acoustic opening of “Ballad of the Golden Hour” hints at another backwoods-y masterpiece – Dylan‘s John Wesley Harding – before building into a sweet indie-rock evocation of death. Be damn sure they’re gonna die pretty.