The Black Swans Words Are Stupid

Columbus, Ohio's Black Swans had already made two albums of dark, moody folk-rock, channeling everything from Townes Van Zandt to Tindersticks, before their violinist, Noel Sayre, died in 2008. A core member of the band, Sayre had been there from the beginning, and his departure surely gives his bandmates more to lament than they ever had before. And even though work on the album began after Sayre's passing, he still made it onto their third album, Words Are Stupid. The band found some stray tracks of his violin and fitted them into some of the songs as a tribute to their fallen comrade.

Abstract by Jim Allen