SONG OF THE DAY: “TRUE BELIEVER” BY WIDOWSPEAK

Brooklyn-based duo Widowspeak has followed up its sophomore full-length, the doomsday-inspired Almanac — which was also influenced by the sudden departures of founding member Michael Stasiak and bassist Pamela Garabano-Coolbaugh — with the six-track EP The Swamps (Captured Tracks, October 2013). “I burned my share of sage / closed up the mouth of our cave /and tried to keep it all from you,” singer-guitarist Molly Hamilton sings on the new disc’s “Smoke and Mirrors,” but she and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas have emerged relatively unscathed from their end-of-the-world worries. The EP serves as a bridge between their second and third albums, one that they firmly set in the southeastern swamps of America. As with Almanac, the EP creates an immersive, cinematic atmosphere, transporting the listener to the swamps on such songs as “Calico” and “True Believer.” As she sings in the exquisite title track, “And in the swamps I’d rest / I’d think about it less / or maybe I’d let it sink in / I want to tell the truth again.” The EP cover is also an important part of the whole, a photograph taken by Hamilton on the night of the Supermoon this past June of a swamp diorama she built. Thomas, who hails from Chicago, and Tacoma native Hamilton will be at Bowery Ballroom on November 8 with Pure Bathing Culture and Spires.