Sons And Daughters: Mirror Mirror

Glaswegian rockers Sons And Daughters have always had a taste for high-end darkness. The Scots first won attention for the ragged, blackened rockabilly track “Johnny Cash” back in 2003. Five years later, they earned comparisons to Nick Cave with their breakthrough album, This Gift. Now, for their overdue follow-up Mirror Mirror, they take aim at Suicide’s thorny crown, hotwiring their typically grimy guitars and theatrical guy-girl vocals with a sudden influx of electronics. “Breaking Fun” might be the best song S&D yet: It slides into the room on a wave of quavering goth guitar, then jitters to blasts of digital disturbance as Scott Paterson howls about dirty discos and government distrust. On the opener, “Silver Spell,” the band borrows Salem’s horror-score synths to soundtrack Paterson and Adele Bethel’s cabalistic chanting. Bethel takes lead on the spiky, minimal, groove-based “Rose Red,” which eventually crashes through the finish line in a tangle of treated axe-shredding.