Music for people who believe in crystal power; or, more charitably, dark folk that gestures towards 1930’s Appalachia without sounding quite like anything from that era. Dawn McCarthy has an amazingly clear and flexible voice, and there’s some kind of magic in the songwriting or musicianship that makes the songs seem both richly textured and simple. So why does this album make me so cranky? I just can’t stand vocals without meter and rhythm, like those on tracks 1 and 3. Just skip those, and you’ll probably love the album. This is chronologically the first Faun Fables album, for what that’s worth. I liked: 4, 5, and 10. No FCC’s.

Track 1: Eerie, shrieky yet tuneful female descants, with lower-pitched verses. Strummy guitar. Nice dark feeling is partly ruined for me by the meandering meterless vocals.
Track 2: *Meditative feel, with acoustic guitar and low-pitched flute. Intense vocals.
Track 3: Quiet rhythmic guitars, with crashing waves of voice. Lyrics: “I was young but I remember / on the night my mother died” etc.
Track 4: ***Brighter and more rhythmic. A minor-tinged autumn love song.
Track 5: ***Simple and ur-bluesy. Lyrics about the disadvantages of being born to a coal-mining family. Very Woody Guthrie.
Track 6: *Simple guitars and low flutes. Lovely lyrics: “They say good things don’t last / well bad things never do / and since you’re afraid / I’ll sing for you.” A dark lullaby.
Track 7: **A cover of an old bluegrass song, sung with wrenching emotion. And yodeling. Clapping at the end.
Track 8: *Fragile lovely beginning. Gently building electric guitar, in addition to the usual suspects.
Track 9: *You might recognize this from the soundtrack to “O Brother Where Art Thou.” This version is nearly as haunting as that one. Far-away sounding vocals, monotonous guitars (in a good way).
Track 10: ***Spine-tingling minor harmonies, with a pump-organ (I think).
Track 11: **Major key! Polka rhythms and yodeling, with gilded age-style lyrics and delivery (except for the yodeling part).

-Kathryn