Trail of Stars

On their follow-up to Nighttown the Walkabouts formed a new partnership with a key producer: Phill Brown, already famed for his engineering work but at that time especially praised for his role in the last Talk Talk albums. There’s a sense of those albums’ almost tactile presence on songs like the stellar opener “Desert Skies,” another Carla Torgerson-sung tour de force. The haunted, lush elegance of their late ’90s work continues here, feeling like a return to America under dark heavens on songs like “Straight to the Stars,” “On the Day” and “Last Tears.”