Shaken

On her sophomore album, Shaken, Danish singer/songwriter Maggie Bjorklund chases shadows across a mysterious aural landscape that invokes Italian Western epics and classic film noir. Her understated, insinuating vocals and haunting pedal steel guitar work give these songs a stark, melancholy quality that’s lent splashes of color by Dan Hemmer’s organ and Barb Hunter’s cello. Confronting and transcending sorrow is a recurring theme here, explored with honesty and an eye for detail in “Walking,” “Bottom of the Well,” “Ashes," and similarly downcast but resolute tunes. “Name in the Sand” injects some lightness into the proceedings.