Call it Songs in the Key of Death: after finding an old book of church hymns from the mid-19th century, Houston singer-guitarist Ben Godfrey retooled the songs to make them modern-day dirges for some kind of impending apocalypse. And with spiritual meditations on war ("A Little"), back-breaking labor ("Funeral Dirge/Burial Service"), and decaying flesh ("The Body"), these gothic folk-rock tunes prove that the things that scare us haven’t changed much since the days when the Devil still wore pantaloons.

The music is brand-new, though Godfrey and his bandmates — brassman Shane Patrick, pianist Elton Graves, and drummer Jose Chavez — craft gorgeous folk-rock so antiquey and memory-filled, it sounds like it’s gilded in the dust blown off an heirloom music box. Banjos, horns, sleigh bells and euphoniums come together for eerie waltzes and Appalachian-style rave-ups, while basement-junk flotsam and jetsam adds even more character — a little hammer and anvil plunking here, some heavy chains rattling there. All the while, Godfrey’s strained-note yowl fills up with uneasy rapture. "Pilgrim, yes, arise, look round thee," he warns on "Watchman, Tell Me (Pt. 1)," a song about the Second Coming. "Light is breaking, breaking, in the skies!" If he sounds slightly mournful, it’s… read more »