Genre: Ethereal Rock

The name of the band, Autumn's Grey Solace, brings to mind a group of somber, cowled Goths playing funeral dirge music. Indeed, the titles of the songs—“Sorrow Ashes,” “A Tangle of Scars,” and the cover of the album (dead kudzu vines in aluminum-blue wash) seems to point to that direction. But the first song on the album, “Human Shell” is a shimmering piece of gossamer that recalls Fleetwood Mac by way of the Cocteau Twins. Singer Erin Whelton coos as gently as Karen Carpenter at her most soothing while Scott Ferrell's guitars whirl and eddy like Lindsey Buckingham at his most fey sat in with a session Robin Guthrie. The next piece spins the sugar of voice and guitar into a shoegaze confection that recalls Lush, Chapterhouse and the Pale Saints at their heyday. A choir of new age sprites echo through “Dormant,” my current favorite song—as any song that uses an abandoned library as its central metaphor is likely to. 80's goth bass lines and searing guitar work complete the cycle. And so it goes. AGS doesn't really stray from their 4Adumla. (Whelton “grows” in the “Unshakeable Demon,” but she still sounds like a flower-fairy). But then, they don't have to really stray that far. They just want to make beautiful music, to transport you into a world were sound means everything. Whelton's words feature gauzy, mystical imagery, but her rapturous singing sweeps the literal meanings away. Ferrell's tricks are wondrous—“Cloudburst” sounds like it was played entirely by basses and the tunings of the guitars are as symphonic as anything by Sigur Ros. But as wild and magical as AGS's music is, its still adheres to the three minute, classic pop song rule. “Riverine” knows that you need a little bit of light to define the shadows.