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Widowspeak Enter Tough but Pretty ‘Dark Age’

Widowspeak The Dark Age Stream Almanac

As goes the Widowspeak lore, singer Molly Hamilton was once so shy that she’d have to leave the room while the rest of the band listened to what she’d recorded. But 2011’s self-titled debut for Captured Tracks was a brightly blooming affair, and the Brooklyn-based group’s upcoming follow-up LP, Almanac, due January 22, finds Hamilton farther out in front of Widowspeak’s beautifully ethereal dream fuzz. We heard the gleaming “Ballad of the Golden Hour” last month, and are now pleased to share “The Dark Hour,” a tough but pretty grinder in the tradition of Warpaint or 2:54. While the atmosphere and drive leave nothing to be desired, it’s all about the guitars on this one: the jangly acoustic, the lithe shredder, and those colorful little bursts of African highlife coming through. And of course, there’s Hamilton’s voice, a hypnotic and comely thing that flies low while never flatting, and sounds like the call of a small army of sirens.