Wilderness

Wild animals, tall tales, and folk-lore from American history populate Wilderness - the 9th studio album from New Mexico's Handsome Family. Recorded at home in Albuquerque and at the Wilco Loft in Chicago it's a record that finds husband & wife duo Brett & Rennie Sparks blending Appalachian holler, psych-rock and Tin Pan Alley inspired melodies to conjure up a world where David Attenborough meets David Lynch in a Honky-Tonk bar at midnight.

The album explores the little-known enigmas of the natural world: immortal jellyfish, woodpecker tongues, dancing octopi, fly royalty, the secret language of crows, and mysterious ant spirals. Elsewhere we discover why the Sparks never take seaside vacations and learn all about compulsive window-smasher Mary Sweeney.

It's classic Handsome Family territory - twisted tales of the unexpected that may raise a smile but will also, thanks to Rennie's knack for spinning a good yarn, leave you ever so slightly unsettled. But it's not only the narrative that draws you deep into this zoological wonderland. From the opening bars of Flies to the album's closer Wildebeest - a parlour-piano led hymn that somehow successfully manages to bring together Stephen Foster, hungry crocodiles and the unity of the wildebeest herd, Brett Sparks lays bear a succession of deceptively simple melodies and dexterous instrumentation that combine with his wife's lyrics to a startlingly haunting effect and are delivered with a voice that glides between a Cash-like timbre and a southern high & lonesome plea.