They haunt me at night.

Chipwich's.

If you buy me one, I'll be your friend for at least 15 minutes - or until the chipwich is gone, whichever comes first.

Sixteen Horsepower “Folklore”

There is something indescribably fun about an album with great hooks and catchy lyrics. This is the exact opposite of that album.

It is a dark and unrelenting series of songs focusing on isolation, introspection, spiritual sacrifice and loss with a bizarre interruption in the middle in the form of an unremittingly peppy version of Single Girl by the Carter Family and then a French waltz to close out the festivities (I'm not kidding). An eclectic array of instruments interrupt the mostly traditional arrangements and by the end, the presence of a violin, accordion or banjo seems all too appropriate as the thematic elements of the album come to present a single driving concept: redemption.

Whether in Outlaw Song, a Hungarian-born epic of a horse thief confronted by the law or religious fanatics shunned by both God and the world in Hutterite Mile, Folklore creates a bleak atmosphere on the surface, but cuts through what might otherwise be a fairly depressing exercise in maudlin angst by imbuing each song, and consequently the album as a whole, with a real sense of hope.

I never tire of listening to this album and it's one of the few albums I almost always listen to in its entirety from start to finish. It creates a rich world, one long forgotten but still relevant, and challenges the listener to contemplate meaning and desire in a way that speaks to how badly we all want to make good on our many sins.