True Widow’s last album, As High As The Highest Heavens… (my favorite of 2011 by a mile), had such a rich, spacious, heavy sound that listening to it felt like sinking slowly to the bottom of a warm sea. With this release, the Texas three-piece aims for a less languid, more consistently propulsive sound. I.e., instead of being ultra slow, it’s only somewhat slow (though As High… had its faster sections). So the listener gets less time to nestle in bottomless riffage and more time to rock out. Guitarist D.H. Phillips and bassist Nicole Estill trade/share vocal duties. The sound is pretty uniform across the album, and hey, why mess with perfection? Play all/any. No FCCs.

1. (5:51)—Medium-slow noir groove, like a 60s rock 45 slowed down to 33 RPM. (Ergh…Your Imaginary Friend beat me to this description on an earlier review.) Phillips sings.
2. (6:05)—Medium-slow. Phillips sings. Spooky, graveyard-on-Halloween-type intro. Nice spaced-out swagger to this—harkens back to As High….
3. (6:17)—Mid-tempo, slightly closer to pop. Estill sings and multi-tracks her vocals. Ripping distorted guitar lead.
4. (4:13)—Slow, sluggish strut. Cool, concise, catchy. Phillips sings.
5. (7:19)—Slow. Estill sings. Creepy sound effects. Especially heavy and primitive, edging toward metal.
6. (4:45)—Medium-slow. Instrumental. Spine-tingling guitar. Chill, slowed down, nocturnal surf music for the vampire set.
7. (4:49)—Medium-slow. Phillips and Estill both sing. Really catchy guitar lead. Less on the spooky side. Gorgeous.
8. (5:10)—Slow. Spooky again. Phillips and Estill both sing. Nice chord progression on the chorus.