Ended Up a Stranger

“I keep crashing into parked cars” sings Carla Torgerson as the opening line for “Lazarus Heart,” the first song on Ended Up a Stranger, and the music, feeling more tense and direct than had been the case on Trail of Stars, signals a similar sense of stakes being raised. Meantime, the hope-chasing “See It In the Dark” was one of the Walkabouts’ most exultant songs in a long while, down to the horn section. As a whole, Ended Up a Stranger kept the general Walkabouts feeling of dark elegance going, with the concluding title track being a moving, haunted lament.