Forgiven Now
Dolly Varden, the Chicago band named for a hard-to-catch trout, returns  for its fourth album with a hypnotic set of songs about resentment and anger,  and the importance of leaving both behind. The singing-songwriting team of  Stephen Dawson and Diane Christiansen, husband and wife in private life, lace  every song with tuneful anguish and provide plenty of vivid imagery to  illustrate their emotions. "Bone white faces I recall barking out advice,"  Dawson sings in "Forgiven Now," later serving up a fine, surreal take on a  visitation of Jesus on "Overwhelming." They interrupt their intelligent pop  amalgam for an overtly honky-tonk shuffle on "There's a Magic," where, actually,  aside from Al Perkins's pedal steel guitar work, there isn't much. But they  quickly launch back into poetic dreaminess, particularly on "1,000 Men Like  Cigarettes," a meditation on loneliness and promiscuity that's weird--and  enticing--enough for David Lynch. No further explanation about the trout, but by  album's end, you'll be thoroughly hooked all the same.--Alanna Nash