Strange Angels

Strange Angels is a whispered testament, leaning on one voice and acoustic guitar, with occasional splashes of piano, cello, and strings. The result is far removed from Hersh's work with Throwing Muses, which packed it in 1996 after a decade of struggle and eight albums of coarse, uneven beauty. Along with her husband and kids, Hersh has made an even cleaner break from the past, leaving Boston for the solitude of the California desert near Joshua Tree. True to her new home base, Strange sounds like an album of folk songs written and sung under the clear night sky. When sung to children, lullabies are meant to induce sleep. When sung by Kristin Hersh to adults, they have the opposite effect. No matter how sweet or hushed the sound of Strange Angels, these lullabies disturb more than they comfort, jarring you awake when you're about to doze off, akin to what Hersh calls "cold water coming for the warm water junkies," but it can be oddly moving, too. --Keith Moerer