These Cincinatti alt-rockers released their seventh album, Do to the Beast, in 2014. It was their first release in 16 years, and built on the bluesy, soul-flecked sound they had developed over the course of several acclaimed albums in the 80s and 90s. Now their second wave continues with a darker record that frontman Greg Dulli has described as “spooky”, centred on themes of death and the uncanny. “I wanna go deep down to where my soul has gone”, he laments on The Spell, while the sad, swelling ballad I Got Lost was written as a response to learning that collaborator Dave Rosser had been diagnosed with cancer. But despite its subject matter, this isn’t a pitch-black record. Arabian Heights is cocksure and sardonic, propelled along by slide guitar, scuzz and drums both ferocious and syncopated; lead single Demon in Profile is horn-driven and moody but danceable, too – with some trademark snark – and Birdland is infused with jazz sensibility. Ingenuity in spades.
