Sleepers

For more than a decade, Kathryn Ellinger has been writing consistently compelling and richly diverse music. This double album from Sleepers only adds to her renown. Exploring the wide expanses of the human experience and the finer shades of our emotional landscape, Ellinger's songs here are fogbound and melancholic while evoking the gorgeous, daydreamy psychedelia of Ghost and Mojave 3: dusky, lush, elegant and just a little spooky. As dark as things get, though, there's an animalistic core of defiance that bursts forth in fiery songs like "Pearl," as well as harder-edged moments in "Turn Yer Cheek," which rocks with playful abandon, providing a nice contrast to Home's other tracks, many of which skirt the edge of disaster and hysteria. Ellinger has always been a gifted lyricist, but this time out, more than ever, she has matched emotionally naked lyrics with equally risky sounds for the best release of her career.