Crooked Fingers

Eric Bachman's latest appellation, Crooked Fingers, finds him working in a lower-volume, Barry Black vein while embracing the dark, broken spirit that gave rise to such Archers of Loaf classics as "Greatest Of All Time" and "Underachievers March and Fight Song." Bachman's lyrics rally both joy and misery, sounding as though the music's been built around them rather than added post-guitar. The resulting mix constitutes Bachman's most succinct work since the Archers' Vee Vee. A new, rich collection of work-intensive anthems bent on drinking themselves to death or world domination -- whichever comes first.