Wild Animals [LP]

On their seventh long-player, Duluth's acoustic troubadours Trampled by Turtles continue to push the outer limits of folk and bluegrass playing light against darkness, delivering one of their most thoughtful and downtempo albums to date. Produced by Low frontman Alan Sparhawk, the band's generally clean tones are cloaked here in a moody reverb that lends an ethereal dreaminess to tracks like "Silver Light" and "Ghosts," both of which are marked by the band's dense, harmonic vocal blend. The frenetic speed picking they are frequently known for only appears twice on the melodic pop-grass of "Come Back Home" and the fuzzy-edged "Western World." Fans of the band will find enough familiar ground here, but Wild Animals shows a continued creative evolution at work. ~ Timothy Monger