Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris have been spinning their reality-bending tales for more than a decade. Their covid-delayed Madame Curie concept album (Our Lady of Radium) was one of my favorites last year. This new set finds the duo digging up more and more graves just to see what remains remain.

Charming Disaster Super Natural History (self-released)

Their obsession with dark and creepy subjects fits their folk cabaret gambols, as the songs lurch from one disturbing revelation to the next with all the tension of an sun-dappled afternoon. Like an insect caught in a web, the more I try to escape, the faster I find myself trapped.

These are less tales of horror than our human fascination with fear. Why do we fear what we fear? What makes the occult taboo? Charming Disaster doesn't answer any questions. That's the job of the listener. What this album does, quite magnificently, is create an unsettling tableau. How you react is on you.

I suppose this is also a themed album, but the songs are tied much more loosely than Radium. More accurately, I think, this is the duo's latest expedition into those parts of the mind most of us like to ignore. As one of last year's songs put it, "Shining a light in the dark." Settle in, if you dare.

Jon Worley