'Slaves' Graves and Ballads' presents a merging of classical and pop music. Its lyrics further develop Dave Longstreth's shrubs-at-the-edge-of-the-lot imagery from last year's debut 'The Glad Fact,' marking how the landscaping in large parking lots makes us feel different about ourselves. Tricked-out Hondas, subwoofers, sunsets, woodchips, chiropractors: all these pieces of the American strip mall coalesce in a vivid meditation on the technology that domesticates and the instinct that resists domestication. What 'Slaves' Graves' discusses in a collective way, 'Ballads' explores in a personal, individual way. Here, the MO is personal heartbreak and romantic yearning. Uniting them both is the idea that what's most true is the hardest to see, because it's unbearably simple.