***Love songs abound on 2003’s Red Devil Dawn, but most of the love is dead or dying or at least dirty. That makes sense: Just a few years after his split with indie stalwarts ARCHERS OF LOAF, ERIC BACHMANN had forcefully forged a new identity and sound with CROOKED FINGERS, and he quickly amassed a catalog of gorgeous, poetic songs about weary losers and broken lives. This is the album that gave their desperation its most pointed, perfectly detailed homes. Red Devil Dawn was the third Crooked Fingers album inside of four years, and in hindsight it feels like both the pinnacle and the end of Crooked Fingers Phase One. Bachmann had perfected the art of darkness, of finding his characters and stories in solitude and then adding or subtracting sounds and players to make them come alive. Limited LP version of red vinyl.