2
With2, the aptly monikered follow-up to the band's debut,1, the masterminds of cult favoritesThree Mile PilotandClikitat Ikatowicontinue their dark, inspired collaboration as the Black Heart Procession. Nearly an hour's worth of music,2is an entrancing collection of songs composed with unusual instrumentation (sheet metal and the waterphone are cited in the liner notes) and lyrics that will make even the most hardened of criminals weep. The funeral-parlor piano and bass on "It's a Crime I Never Told You About the Diamonds in Your Eyes" is reminiscent of Grant Lee Buffalo's earnest first record,Fuzzy. On the hypnotic and dense "A Light So Dim," an eerie saw and piano back Pall Jenkins as he sings in his trademark moan, "If you are the lighthouse in the storm / I'll be the ship filled with a thousand dead souls." Not light fare. But not pretentious, either. Heartbreak and agony have never sounded so good.--Kerry Murphy