Something strange lurks in the background of Shana Cleveland’s songs. It’s not necessarily sinister; there’s just a sense that an unknown entity is circling the perimeter, eyes glowing out from the shadows. Backed by her nine-piece band the Sandcastles, Cleveland’s solo debut, 2015’s Oh Man, Cover the Ground, showcases the fluidity of her American primitive-style guitar playing. Accented by cello, clarinet, ritualistic-sounding percussion, and cryptic, near-whispered lyrics, the whole thing is bisected by a 47-second track titled “(death riff).” There’s an uneasy beauty to Cleveland’s work, and that remains true on her new album, Night of the Worm Moon. Cleveland’s latest continues to burrow deeper into the uncomfortable space between light and darkness, life and death, knowing and not knowing. That comfort with the universe’s unanswerable questions is what makes Cleveland’s music so great—as she sings on “I’ll Never Know,” Worm Moon’s closing track, “I try my best to live in truth/I guess I’ll never know.”

by Ciara Dolan