[10.02] Eric Bachmann can do no wrong. For years, he rocked us as the frontman for Archers of Loaf. Under the name Barry Black, he put out two amazing albums in the 1990s. And nowadays, he's been blowing my mind with his new trio—Crooked Fingers, that wonderful symphony of banjo, bass and Neil Diamond-esque bar ballads.

On Short Careers you won't get a chance to hear Bachmann's splendid smoky vocals, but you will be treated to 12 fantastic instrumentals. These tunes make up the soundtrack for a film called Ball of Wax by Daniel Kraus. I haven't seen the film, though the graphic on the film's Web site alone—a baseball morphed into a devil—really makes me want to. Apparently it's about a slightly evil baseball player and I gotta say, I can't quite envision how this music would fit in—but I'm curious. This soundtrack weaves together strings, keyboards and sound effects such as crowds cheering and music boxes to create an utterly haunting mood. The songs aren't quite as musically rich as what Bachmann composes for Crooked Fingers, but that's all right. Their delicate leanness is powerfully effective.

This album is a serious mood enhancer, and those in dark moods may want to keep this one on the shelf for fear of delving deep into depression. Songs like "Vision and Execution" will have you feeling bi-polar as it swings from a somber, solemn guitar that sounds almost like a Greek death lament to a rollicking squadron of strings that would have Zorba dancing like there's no tomorrow.

The swiftly moving strings that provide the backbone for "Nosebleed" totally got under my skin the first time I heard it. Sadly, this tune is a mere 57 seconds, so I found myself all wound up with nowhere to go…I would have loved to hear more of this kind of stuff and less of the nearly creepy tunes like "Jimmy the Enforcer." "The Mysterious Death of Robert Tower" could easily have been a track off of Tom Wait's 1983 classic Swordfishtrombones. A somewhat Spanish-sounding violin dominates this song that almost leaves you aching for a Waits-like lyric.

That said, it's great to hear an album that's rich enough musically to sustain itself sans vocals. And this is definitely that kind of album. Short Careers is the perfect soundtrack for winter. It's dark, poignant, appropriate music for the bitter winds of November, but includes enough moments of brightness so as to prevent wrist-slitting.
—Rapunzel