Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard The End torrent

The cover of Regard the End depicts a leafless tree struggling for life in arid soil. The photo inside the sleeve is a black and white portrait of a snow-covered weatherboard house, the kind of place where you\'d be surprised to wake in the middle of the night and not find the pale ghost of a young girl at the foot of your bed. Even by the fabulously bleak standards of Willard Grant Conspiracy, Regard the End (a title which clearly should be interpreted as an instruction) is gloomy, less an album than a wake--almost every song is a rueful reflection on death, decay or departure. It is also, in keeping with previous WGC offerings, absolutely splendid.

The 11 credited WGC players on Regard the End are augmented by guest vocalists Kristin Hersh, Jess Klein and Blake Hazard. The knelling balladry created by this formidable lineup is a conscious echo of such old-school miserabilists as The Louvin Brothers, and also finds WGC strengthening their spiritual kinship with fellow outsize country ensemble Lambchop: \"Beyond the Shore\" especially shares something of Lambchop\'s fragile grandeur. \"River in the Pines\" and \"Fare Thee Well\" summon up memories of the Triffids, and it\'s not just the title of the climactic \"The Suffering Song\" that brings Nick Cave to mind.

Mostly, however, Regard the End just sounds like Willard Grant Conspiracy, which is no problem at all. For an album so completely preoccupied with death, Regard the End is curiously life-affirming.