Catacombs

Shedding musical skins from projects past, Baltimore’s Cass McCombs seems comfortable now in the skin he was born in; he’s a skilled and soulfully wry singer-songwriter, and his fourth record, *Catacombs*, conjures artists as wide-ranging as Slaid Cleaves and the Go Betweens’ Robert Forster. Opening track “Dreams-Come-True-Girl” is a lovely, slinky, make-out number that might reduce weaker souls to puddles, and it features a vocal cameo by quirky actress Karen Black. Choosing Black fits right in with the idiosyncratic McCombs’ creative view; an artist more focused on “hip” cred might have chosen Karen O. “The Executioner’s Song,” a funereal ode to an unlikely career choice, takes a cue from the delicious black humor of Mark Eitzel, while “My Sister, My Spouse” and “Harmonia” are creepily (the former) and beautifully (the latter) mesmerizing. With upright bass, piano, organ, and acoustic and steel guitar, there is texture and color aplenty on *Catacombs*, and listening to McCombs as he finds his way to a fitting musical niche is mighty satisfying.

The singer-songwriter's fourth full-length is both his most stripped-down effort to date and also his best.

Spaced-out singer-songwriter Cass McCombs seems to be begging critics to take cheap shots at his fourth album of shape-shifting, Roy Orbison-tinged folk: He opens with a drowsy, overlong ballad called “Dreams-Come-True-Girl” that plays more like “Dreams-Never-End-Girl.” But McCombs’ deceivingly polite brand of…

On the pointedly titled Catacombs, the willfully enigmatic Cass McCombs further seals his status as one of the 21st century's most gifted and...