Carolina Skeletons

The first taste of what would eventually become the Returning Jesus album three years later, Carolina Skeletons finds the No-Man partnership still in fine creative health, with a quartet of tunes on offer. The title track appears both in full form and a briefer piano-only reprise at the end — the full version is an absolute winner, a slow, striking blend of sparse, echoed percussion, guitar and keyboards from Wilson topped with Bowness' regret-tinged lyric about loss, struggle and the past. It has the build of an anthem while retaining its soft, understated approach — simply put, marvelous. The other two songs are more than worth it as well — "Something Fails" relies on acoustic guitar for its lead melody, Wilson adding delicate touches on keyboards and other instruments for its fragile sweep, while "Close Your Eyes" creates a web of beauty from minimal, liquid electric guitar and a variety of percussion. On both, as always, Bowness is simply wondrous, his vocals suffused with yearning passion.