As indicated in the title, the sublime dons a shroud of darkness in the Crystal Stilts‰’ long-anticipated third studio album. In Nature Noir, released September 17, the Brooklyn-based underground-rock veterans focus on the complex relationship between humanity and nature.

The album opens with a psychedelic march saluting “The Spirit in Front of Me,‰” as if paying formal homage to the muse who inspired the music. This tribute is followed up by “Star Crawl,‰” the lamenting-yet-groovy single off of the album which was made into a visually striking landscape-oriented music video:

“Back to the underworld, back to the sea. Back to the garden, just you and me,‰” broods Stilts‰’ vocalist and lyricist Brad Hargett on one of the work‰’s strongest tracks: the rockabilly-inspired “Future Folklore.‰” These locations to which Hargett offers the listener to elope with him evoke settings of humanity‰’s origin. The first, “the underworld,‰” could be a reference to Plato‰’s allegory of the cave, indicating the album‰’s careful processing of its own form and content. The “sea‰” mentioned could possibly suggest another narrative of man‰’s origin: the scientific beginning of life on Earth in the primordial soup of the prehistoric ocean. In turn, “the garden‰” immediately brings to mind the Biblical garden of Eden. Something foreboding in the tone of the last words, however, sounds as if “to never come back‰” is the line that should implicitly follow.

Later songs echo this longing to escape from society to a more natural or primal mode of living. “Forget about the afterlife, multiply the laughter,‰” Hargett implores on the folksy “Memory Room,‰” perpetuating a zen, carpe diem attitude toward the experience of life.

One unfortunate aspect of the album is that the lyrics shrink from accessibility through the musical decision to suffocate Brad‰’s baritone vocals underneath a fluffy pillow of reverb. Thusly, songs must be listened to many times in order to intercept and decipher the words that coast by JB Townsend‰’s guitar riffs undetected. The good news is that listening to these tracks repeatedly is by no means a chore, and when the lyrics fail to come through clearly, its likely because of an interesting phrase of the instrumentation beckoning the listener to pay it the attention it is due.

All in all, Nature Noir is fairly short, with 10 tracks clocking in at just over half an hour. Regardless, at its conclusion one does not feel cheated as every song that made the cut has a meaningful place within the work as a whole. Offering contemplative sentiments and swirling melodies song after song, Nature Noir takes its place among the Crystal Stilts‰’ catalogue as a profoundly meaningful and deeply psychedelic rock album.