Solas

One method of dialing into the Zeitgeist is to notice when a long-obscure song starts popping up as a cover version on new records. “Darkness, Darkness,” a haunting 1969 hit for the Youngbloods, turned up earlier this year on Solas’ The Edge of Silence, which takes its name from a line in the song, before appearing on Robert Plant’s new album, Dreamland. The version by Solas, which opens this album, brings together the Irish-American band’s love for the music of its ancestors with the kind of dreamy post-4AD chamber-pop sensibility made popular by such performers as Enya and Loreena McKennitt. But Solas’ vocalist, Dierdre Scanlan, possesses a bell-like soprano voice that puts, mostly, the kibosh on any residual kitsch from the collision of trad Irish and ear-candling music, and appropriate choices for covers (Youngbloods, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake) make this a satisfying listening experience.