WIT'S END by Cass McCombs

This is a gorgeous album of despair, the most believable evidence yet that McCombs is living up to his own legend.

He pushes the entire singer-songwriter tradition to its gorgeous bitter end, making music that can barely sustain its own emotional burden.

He takes care to meticulously strike the perfect balance between dark and contemplative versus downright depressing.

McCombs has constructed a difficult and wandering album, an album of beautifully hushed insistence that finds its only logical conclusion.

Unfortunately, the record is submerged in despair to the point where it almost seems to drown under its own weight.