Pitchfork

I get the sense that Birmingham, Alabama's 13ghosts think about death a lot. Not just loss and suffering of survivors, but the actual act of losing consciousness forever: walking towards the light, descending that downward escalator, or simply being absorbed into the void. The riverside of the title of this track, from their upcoming album The Strangest Colored Lights, could likely be the River Styx, where singer Buzz Russell feeds the swans and waits for a loved one who has preceded him to the other side. What does this particular purgatory sound like? 13ghosts, who proved so malleable on their previous effort, Cicada, drench the first verse in churchly organ, feigning a move toward (Arcade) fire and brimstone before detouring into Southwestern drama. A dusty desert guitar plays a dark fanfare, giving way to horns that sound like Calexico playing your funeral. Grimly evocative yet somehow reassuring (there are swans, after all), "Riverside" is 13ghosts living up to their name.

MP3:> 13ghosts: "Riverside"
[from The Strangest Colored Lights; due 03/18/08 on Skybucket]