Album: Cherry Ghost, Beneath this Burning Shoreline (Heavenly)

Rock's reputation as a narrative form is not extensive, but Cherry Ghost are doing their damnedest.

This collection of stories makes for a second album of substance and hook, even if Gothic yarns intoned with the dolorous heft of an English Jim Morrison seem like an unpromising proposition. Guitars twang, pulses pulsate, chords shift malodorously, while the voice focuses attention like a rider in a storm. Blue Nile fans, solitary and yearning as is their lot, should pay attention.