Blood/Lines

The definition of goth has certainly expanded since the genre's earliest days, when creaky synths, robotic beats, harsh guitars, and/or disengaged voices dominated the attack. The sound eventually slowed and swelled far from the original parameters until the term meant "existentialism in dark, velvety tones." Here, the Bay Area’s Emily Jane White searches the nighttime corridors to find a musical scheme that Mark Lanegan, Portishead, Cocteau Twins, and PJ Harvey would all find speaking to them in some way. “Thoroughbred” includes a church bell chime that reinforces an organ and double-tracked vocals, which break past sawing strings and acoustic guitars. Recorded in Sonoma County, Calif., with help from Marissa Nadler (who duets on several tracks), Nick Ott, Wainwright Hewlett, Shawn Alpay, and Darwin Meiners, Blood/Lines, features 11 songs that survived the picking through more than 100 ideas. Clearly, mood dominates on White's fourth album. No matter how much mischief lurks in the tracks to “Faster Than the Devil” or “Wake in Blood,” the atmosphere throughout remains alluring.