Haunting and horny

Agent Ribbons’ newest album Chateau Crone, which debuts October 12, gives a tour of the group’s future musical home—a place where perhaps The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Sally the rag doll would like to live. The album should be played through a phonograph at a shadowy tea party where Baba Yaga and Wednesday Addams are the guests of honor. Expect a less cloudy, dreamlike state. Instead, you’ll find yourself wandering in a haunted world with only your whimsy to protect you.

Vocalist/guitarist Natalie Gordon and percussionist Lauren Hess welcomed Naomi Cherie to the group in January 2009. Cherie, a violinist and cellist, brings what we never thought Agent Ribbons needed: depth. The instrumentation maintains its minimalism, yet the group’s use of layering gives the impression of something more complex. It’s dramatic and theatrical, but in the end, it is just three girls.

“I’ll Let You Be My Baby” is a standout on the new album. It’s dramatic and speaks to a time in a woman’s life when she is giving, wanting and just plain horny. Agent Ribbons was playing “Wood Lead Rubber” before Cherie’s addition, but her emotional, screaming string section makes it impossible to imagine how the song ever existed without it—almost a parody of the band itself.