Nikki Sudden / Jacobites Dead Men Tell No Tales (Vinyl)

Dead Men Tell No Tales takes a stripped-down turn with plaintive lyrical confessions as pretty as they are prescient summoning Syd Barrett s wild spirit through a séance of simple reverb burbles and acoustic incantations. Frontand-center vocals recounting love loss and death s lurking presence are presented against airy guitar shimmer in a demented yin and yang seemingly forecasting the scarf swathed underground dandy man s abrupt fall nearly 20 years later. In the midst of such weighty tomes are less downtrodden peeks into the studio where Sudden and his Jacobites are caught on tape in a few joyful fits and starts adding another complex layer to this celebrated post-punk.