Style: Geek-chic freak folk; compare to Bright Eyes, Mewithoutyou, Okkervil River
Top tracks: “Damn These Vampires” “Never Quite Free,” “Sourdoire Valley Song”
There’s a jangling bite to All Eternals Deck that creates a perfect palette for songs built around “themes of hidden things and the dread that hidden things inspire, but also the excitement, the attraction, the magnetic draw.” The collection is a powderkeg of sonic and thematic tension, but John Darnielle’s incisive lyricism keeps it from blowing apart. His raw vocals recall early Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) telling cryptically poetic narratives. There’s spirituality to mine in wrestlings between hope and paranoia, and the seen and unseen. Darnielle implores “walk by faith,” and his delivery of “God damn these vampires” comes off as more of a prayer than a curse.
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