Bachmann, Eric

***There was something sinister about CROOKED FINGERS, both the name of the project and the music that ERIC BACHMANN wrote at the helm of its ever-shifting lineups over 15 years. He retired the moniker a couple of years ago, but with his third album under his own name, the transformation feels gorgeous and final and irreversible: No Recover. The drunken louts and red devil dawns are a thing of the past now, monuments to a different time. Bachmann, husband and recent father, has some new lenses through which to view the world. Eric Bachmann of 2018 seems to view life with a sort of disgruntled maturity and righteous resignation. No Recover is both harrowing and beautiful, and its mellowness can be deceiving. The album is mostly just him, a classical guitar, some treated rhythm tracks, and otherworldly drop-ins from singer AVERY LEIGH DRAUT and guitarist ERIC JOHNSON, Bachmann’s old pal from their ARCHERS OF LOAF days.