Oh Perilous World [Audio CD] Rasputina

Oh Perilous World is the sixth release by Rasputina, a singularly inventive outfit led by Melora Creager. A cellist herself, she creates a frontline of multiple cellos. Eschewing the faux-classical shenanigans of the Electric Light Orchestra, she welds the instruments with sensibilities that evoke everyone from Van Dyke Parks to Tom Waits. The album opens with the lines "In the spring of 1315 there began an era of unpredictable weather. It did not lift until 1851. You remember 1816 as the year without a summer." The dozen songs address the set's title with a mix of journalism and poetry. Creager draws directly from the daily news, but rather than paddling about in simple reportage, she uses phrases and ideas as starting points for her rich and multifaceted results. She moves easily from ballads laced with dulcimers to spiky rockers sporting fuzzed cellos and propulsive drums. The arrangements, which sometimes include layered vocal choruses, utilize complexity with natural grace. --David Greenberger