EDITORS’ NOTES

Eleven years after 2005's Thinking of You, Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean are once again spinning elliptical tales, delivered in their quavering close harmony and accompanied by Morgan Geer's creaking electric guitar. On Freakwater's ninth album since 1989, the duo confess to personal failings and claw at redemption in bleak yet beautiful tunes like "The Asp and the Albatross" and "Bolshevik and Bollweevil," which seem to kick against the relentless tide of time. As the title suggests, these women are singing to save their lives.