The Headless Horseman is a Preacher is so good I can hardly think straight. I've been listening to this disc so much that I worry that I've gotten behind on all the other things I'm supposed to be listening to. It's really that good.

Derek Richey's vocals are a perfect match for Brando's version of darker indie-pop. Some songs ("Theories of Division") have a dreamy Galaxie 500 feel; in fact, Richey's vocals sometimes sound like Dean Wareham in his pre-Luna days. Other tracks have a Davie Bowie-influenced tinge -- particularly the Morrissey penned "Death of a Disco Dancer". However, Brando should in no way be confused with a group of musicians so overwhelmed by their influences that they never develop their own sound. Brando's sound is uniquely their own, forged with bizarre yet beautifully honest lyrics, and arrangements that help to keep them out of the "this sounds just like" classification bin. They don't sound "just like" anyone; rather, they seize moments from past great music and twist and turn them until something new and amazing has been created.

For The Headless Horseman..., Brando enlisted the Smokeylung Orchestra, a string section that adds an extra touch of melancholy to several tracks. Often, when bands throw in such things it comes off as a bit too contrived. In Brando's case, however, this accompaniment is subtle and appropriate, and never overused. Lyrically, Brando's songs express a certain vulnerable bareness, conjuring the image of a main character who is on the verge of losing all hope, but who has not quite hit bottom. It's the sensation that comes between the point when everything has been lost and the realization that it's not ever coming back.

Perhaps Brando will move on to that latter feeling on their next release. Something tells me, though, that they probably have some less obvious ideas of their own.