Keep in Mind Frankenstein

Grand Archives’ second full-length album, like much of its predecessor, was crafted at Paradise Sound in Index, WA with help from producer Ben Kersten (who also recorded The Grand Archives, the band’s 2008 debut). A few friends dropped by during recording. Brooke’s former Carissa’s Wierd cohorts, Jenn Ghetto and Sera Cahoone, sang backing vocals. The gorgeous streaks of pedal steel across the wistful sweep of “Oslo Novelist” come courtesy of Jason Kardong. For the most part, Grand Archives played everything. Especially the weird bits. It’s a little darker than the first record and opens with the bittersweet elegy “Topsy’s Revenge,” inspired by the infamous 1903 newsreel footage of Thomas Edison electrocuting a rogue Coney Island elephant. Songs like “Dig That Crazy Grave,” a buoyant ditty redolent of Southern California and summer afternoons, and the insistent, soaring Silver Among the Gold find their place here as well. It’s an album made up of disparate elements artfully fit together and brought to life with affecting results: Keep in Mind Frankenstein.