The Spell

The Black Heart Procession's music has always been ideal for those feelings of loneliness you get from post-break up come-downs or roaming long deserted highways at night. With The Spell, Pall Jenkins and co. are luckily still creating their music for the lonely. This time around they have decided to play it safe and have largely stuck to their sure-fire formula of gothic indie-rock. Perhaps this has much to do with the mixed reviews they received from their last full-length, the overly-ambitious Amore Del Tropico, which was a concept album and feature-length film based around the plot of an intriguing murder mystery.

While The Spell generally still sounds as if it was recorded by the house band found at some lonesome Twin Peaks cabaret, there are bound to be a few whines and complaints about the few rockin' tracks from the old-school purists. Songs like ''Not Just Words'' and ''GPS'' do not rely on weeping saws or spooky pianos like the BHP songs of yore, but instead revolve around the rhythmic patterns of distorted guitars and fast-paced snare hits from a rock kit. Funnily enough though, these uncharacteristic rock songs are in fact the ones that sound the most inspired and realized, not the typical slow and brooding tracks, which even sound a bit by-the-numbers at times.

This battle between these two categories of songs on The Spell makes it seem as if this is a band in need of a change. This possibly explains the sudden announcement that Pall Jenkins would once again be recording a Three Mile Pilot album with former band mate, and half of Pinback, Armistead Burwell Smith IV. Identity crisis aside, this album is a satisfying one and will likely find a place on many stereos as the lonely ones pour themselves another nice strong scotch.