Jeffrey Luck Lucas: What We Whisper

The founder of the Morlocks has returned with a quiet, tension-filled, gorgeous and eerie piece of work. Although dirge-ish in some respects, tracks such as “You Knew It Well” find Lucas resembling a cross between Tom Waits and Cowboy Junkies scoring a film noir soundtrack, while “Fall in Love Wrong” is a tad more soothing, but still quite dark and ominous a la Chris Isaak. The tone is consistent, but the style changes, especially on the somewhat up-tempo (by his standards), pretty and compelling “The Pills”, which could be covered nicely by the National. Meanwhile, Lucas branches out on the sultry Tex-Mex-meets-Parisian quasi-tango instrumental “Grifos Muertos” with surprisingly great results. Other nuggets here include the creepy, string-laced “In the Stars’ Whirling” and the country-oriented “Know My Name”. But a true gem is the whispery “Sometimes, Sometimes”, featuring Wendy Allen with her Emmylou-like harmony vocals.