The Haunted Windchimes

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More About

• Frank Black

The Haunted Windchimes paint an evocative and compelling musical picture with familiar hues of folk, blues and Americana. The best tracks are the first few, particularly the opener, "Don't Be Afraid," a haunting, mournful dirge, and its polar opposite, "Leaving Here," a bouncy, up-tempo effort that skews toward pop territory. Later material, though less innovative and focused more on the traditional elements at its root, still manages to be palatable thanks to the inviting arrangements, especially the male/female vocal interplay. The album is a split with The Mexican, and the eight songs that act contributes, collectively known as Funeral Pop, draw on a similar range of influences but add in a manic, gothic quality strangely reminiscent of Frank Black if he got really into the blues and joined a haunted circus.