To listen to Evangelicals’ second album, you’d think the studio was hip deep in musicians, a la the Polyphonic Spree. In fact, all that swirly, spacey noise on The Evening Descends was created by three musicians and a lot of knob twiddling. Despite the soaked echo and thundering kick drums, Evangelicals’ music isn’t exactly psychedelic rock; it never meanders, and you get the sense, even as things sound close to crashing down around you, that nothing happens that the band hasn’t thought out in advance. It sounds grand in the best sense of the word: operatic and soaring, but also a little fragile, owing to Josh Jones’ high, trembling voice, which rides the swelling music like a reed atop floodwater. The layers of sound sometimes threaten to overwhelm the songs, but more often, as on the hooky “Skeleton Man” and “Stoned Again,” The Evening Descends manages to thread its expansive sound with just enough light instrumental touches—the slightest guitar fillip, a measure and a half of spiraling background vocals—to keep the mix intriguing and personal. The Evening Descends is a dizzying, carefully crafted ride; it spins, but never out of control. [www.deadoceans.com]
—Eric Waggoner
