Dark Bird Is Home doesn't feel like it came from one time, one place, or one tape machine. The songs and sounds were captured in various countries, studios, and barns, and they carry a weather-worn quality, some dirt and some grit.

If you're a fan of The Tallest Man On Earth, Dark Bird pays real tribute to the old records you fell for, and goes new places you're going to love as well.

If you're new to The Man: holy shit! Many would be jealous of your position. Enjoy these songs, and know there are 40 or more other gems waiting on earlier albums and singles.

Early in Dark Bird, toward the end of the opening track, we hear other voices and sounds backing Kristian Matsson's own.

One of them, later credited in the liner notes with Angel Vocals, shows up several times throughout the record, adding new color to the familiar palette.

And so the story grows and expands. That first song has horns and a piano, keyboards, synthesizers, and other modern noisemakers.

and by track two you've got The Tallest Man on Earth as full-throttle rock and roll. While Dark Bird is The Tallest Man at his most personal and direct, deeper and darker than ever at times, it's also an album with strokes of whimsy and the scent of new beginnings - which feels fresh for The Tallest Man on Earth, and well timed.

You should expect the loudest and proudest sounds yet from The Tallest Man on Earth on album number four, but also the softest and the lowest.