"The Spell" is the most fitting name yet for a Black Heart Procession record. Spells are cast over a person, a love affair, a nation, a world; they enchant and entrap, disorient and delude. They're the heart of this release, and there's no better word to describe the spooky intoxication of the band's sound. Theirs is the sound of driving at night across the West. Like the wide-open landscape, this is music that knows how to be both desolate and lush. Here, a song's 6/8 beat will pull you into a moody seductive waltz and next, the violin and piano evoke the house band of a lonesome cabaret with the lights turned low. Then the strings stop their mournful crying and shift into a propulsive thrum, and now we've got the pedal to the metal and we're heading straight down the open road into a cinematic twilight.
