(Temporary Residence)

 www.temporaryresidence.com

At the height-or nadir-of the Bush/Cheney nightmare in 2006, San Diego's purveyors of dark, spectral fare released The Spell, a set of paranoia-inducing rockers whose urgency reflected the zeitgeist to a tee. With The Shrub banished to dust-bin history, co-leaders Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel have refocused the paranoia where it typically resides in their songs: on discarded lovers and lost souls for whom redemption is unlikely.

Love isn't just a bitch in BHP's world, it's a killer. "I've come to hell for you, and I'm not leaving until I tear out your heart," Jenkins sings over sinister organ and doomed choruses on "Wasteland," later declaring "You came to crush my soul!" amid the clanging, iron-forging percussion of "Heaven and Hell." They haven't totally foregone The Spell's pulsing rockers, but the majority of Six's songs-brooding ballads, sinister rumbas, ghostly waltzes-recall the creepy noir that characterized their best releases, 2 and 3. It's all doom and gloom, but totally bewitching.

Standout Tracks: "Heaven & Hell," "Liar's Ink" JOHN SCHACHT