Epic experimental folk-rock from Haley Fohr of Chicago, + many guests. Barn-burning psychedelic jams, dark ballads, long Steve Reich passages—she manages to squeeze it all into thirty-five minutes. Her voice is somewhere between Jarboe and Scott Walker, or maybe David Sylvian, dramatic and studied. Passionate, mind-bending, maximal stuff. This is a pop record in the same way something like Jim O’Rourke’s Eureka is a pop record; what initially looks familiar becomes increasingly strange and skirts the avant-garde, and by the end most pop sounds like paint-by-numbers in comparison. No FCCs. Favorites: 2, 4, 5, 8.

1. (4:21)—Slow, drumless. Steady, muted keyboard. Synthetic choral singing. Moody horns.
2. *(7:27)—Dark 60’s folk goes intense jazz-rock, like Astral Weeks with tripped-out synths. Do I hear a Coldplay joke in there?
3. (6:13)—No drums. Rolling piano and synths smeared into a swelling drone. Very dramatic, almost like a recitative in an opera. Sudden jump in energy, gets pretty scary.
4. *(5:11)—Fast. Long Steve-Reich-esque intro. The drums and guitar sound like they’re falling down a very long flight of stairs.
5. *(4:04)—Fast. Snarling, stuttering psych rock. Repetitive, loud. Incantatory shouting.
6. (0:26)—Weird pulsing interlude.
7. (2:47)—Mellow then sort of ominous. Wavy molten glass guitar, hand drumming, deep synth bass.
8. *(4:18)—Majestic, dark, very slow. No drums. Murky keyboard, grand strings.