Eric Bachmann hasn’t released an album under his Crooked Fingers moniker in nearly 15 years, but that’s about to change soon. Today the Archers Of Loaf frontman has announced Swet Deth, his first Crooked Fingers album since 2011’s Breaks In The Armor. Its lead single “Cold Waves” is out now ahead of the record’s February release.
The backstory of Swet Deth is a good one: Bachmann’s young son returned home from school one day with a stack of rather macabre drawings he’d made. “There were crows and sinister figures with scythes and tombstones,” Bachmann explains. “And in the center, there was a strange, lush green tree growing out of all of this red and black. On one of them, he had written ‘DETH, SWET DETH,’ and everything clicked in my head.” That particular drawing became of the cover art of Swet Deth, an album that balances the inevitability of death with all the sweetness that often leads up to it.
Like his previous Crooked Fingers records, Bachmann intended for Swet Deth to be a solo endeavor, but quickly realized these songs needed more personnel behind them. He enlisted indie rock veteran Jeremy Wheatley on drums, and you can also catch guest vocal appearances from Sharon Van Etten, the National’s Matt Berninger, Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan, Bachmann’s wife Liz Durrett, and more industry friends.
McCaughan lends co-lead vocals on “Cold Waves,” an anthem that splits the difference between classic rock ‘n’ roll and power pop. It’s deceptively catchy, though the lyrics find its narrator in the throes of heartbreak: “Like an ice age — Frozen cold in time/ And I can’t get warm enough.” Listen to “Cold Waves” and see the full Swet Deth tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Cold Waves”
02 “From All Ways”
03 “Spray Tan Speed Queen (In A German Car)”
04 “Insomnia”
05 “Empty Love And Cheap Thrills”
06 “Haunted”
07 “Hospital”
08 “(I’m Your) Bodhisattva”
09 “Lena”
10 “Steady Now”
Swet Deth is out 2/27 via Merge.
