ESQUELETO
Don’t let the sick notebook sketch on the cover fool you, or the Biblical allusion. Esqueleto isn’t a doom band. Their curiously sunny new release sits somewhere between children’s programming and a drug nightmare. Twee vocals and desert guitar licks carry over from 2012’s Be My Baby Kitty. So does their obsession with cats. “Kitty Treats” pushes the sarcastic little kid stuff to its limit. It’s what would happen if The Pogues submitted “Fairytale of New York” to Purina’s marketing team. “What a Wonderful Moon” strikes a more comfortable balance of playful lyrics and eerie Spaghetti Western sounds. Both of those songs are outliers from the album’s dark religious theme, and on “Demons,” it’s hard not to notice the Daniel Johnston influence. It changes how you look at the cover art, more in line with the outsider artist’s disturbed caricatures than a metal facade. One more expectation left to subvert, Esqueleto closes with a tepid reconciliation to the God who terrifies them so. —Michael Kunz
