A Dark Moon Night
Though the Shroud have the band name and the cover art of gloomy, Gothic dark wavers, this record's sound pulses with uptempo love songs and velvety rockers. Engaging in a straight-up, guitar-driven way, the music is simultaneously accessible and mysterious, like familiar surroundings suddenly darkened in a candle-lit power outage. Though well-crafted and produced to a high sheen, it's also still edgy and passionate. Take the verses of "Pixy-Led": Lydia Fortner's vocals cascade through a melancholic guitar line, giving way to the big chords and enticingly teasing keyboard riff in the chorus. Elsewhere, the arpeggiated guitar work and organic atmospherics of "And Then" almost sound like a forgottenMoody BluesB-side. Still, this is moreSiouxie Siouxthan classic-rock homage. The baroque feel and swirling vocals of songs like "Let Me Hold On" conjure up images of a romanticized past, lavish and ornate as a four-poster bed covered with rose petals.--Matthew Cooke