Rating: NNNN
After last year’s foray into sparkly straight-up indie pop, Jurado returns to a more organic ethos with this stunning stab at heartland roots. The songs on Where Shall You Take Me? sound like dusty artifacts suspended between time and place, dark acoustic sketches that jump out from a faded lo-fi backdrop. Jurado’s voice is particularly powerful here, moving from haunting Neil Youngish echoes to a Springsteen growl, backed by folks like Pedro the Lion’s David Bazan and sweet-voiced Rosie Thomas. Jurado has the ability to craft elegantly authentic tunes evoking everything from creaky Appalachian folk to swamp blues and poignant gospel. You’d swear someone’s wailin’ from an old-school Baptist church on some Sunday long ago. The most rawly honest album I’ve heard in the last two years.
