Album review: Daughn Gibson, Me Moan (Sub Pop)

Daughn Gibson is possessed of a brooding, Scott Walker-esque baritone, and a lyrical imagination to match. The songs on Me Moan are steeped in sinister intimations of bad desires, wanderlust and dark secrets, essayed with varying degrees of intelligibility over arrangements that mostly eschew the commonplace.

Most moving of all is the husband in “Franco”, bereft at his wife's continuing inability to get over their son's suicide: the desolate blend of despair and deep, deep affection is unlike anything I've ever encountered in pop.

Download: Franco; Phantom Rider; All My Days Off; Kissin' On The Blacktop