Horse Feathers: House With No Home

The equipment list for Horse Feathers' second full-length,

House With No Home,

suggests an album of ornate chamber-folk: cello, violin, viola, zither, banjo,

saw, mandolin, etc. The actual playing cuts toward the "American primitive"

vision of Gillian Welch, especially on "Heathen's Kiss." The bowed, stringed

instruments loosen up, drifting and swelling away from the sharp, staccato

playing of the band's 2006 debut, Words Are Dead. It's as if Horse

Feathers now wants its instruments to emulate the uneven creaks in Justin

Ringle's voice, which can keep a melody surging even when it fades to a

whisper. "We are young, we are weak / just as blank as we are bleak," he sings

on "Working Poor," meeting exhaustion with the swagger of a beer-hall

sing-along. Always keeping an ear open to contrast, Horse Feathers grasps the

tension between spare arrangement and raw delivery on "Helen," "This Is What,"

and "Father," the strongest in a set of tunes that play as both stately and

melancholy. It leaves a lot implied, but slowly clears the way for a chilling

catharsis.