*** Bonfire Madigan

SADDLE THE BRIDGE

(Kill Rock Stars)

Bonfire Madigan are not your average indie-rock band -- instead of guitars and kick drums, we get cellos, contrabass, and percussion. Add atmospheric samples and you've got a recipe that's almost avant-garde. But Saddle the Bridge remains accessible, with its verse/chorus structures, its hooks, its melodies, and a captivating frontwoman in singer/cellist Madigan Shive. Every inhalation, every tap of the bow on strings, underlines the fragility of these minimalist songs -- most of all on the closer, "Downtrodden Up." Whispering with wide-eyed intensity, à la PJ Harvey, "I stole all my city's sirens/I buried them in the dirt," Shive evokes the loneliness of the only person on this frontier of understanding.

That could be the theme of the album -- "I'm a deep sea diver and I'll go to outer space," she sings. The mood ranges from familiar and comfortable ("Mad Skywriting") to weird ("Rachel's Song," recorded outdoors in downtown LA complete with police sirens). The best song here, "Running," flows from verse to verse, Shive gently pushing along the fluid crescendos of mourning strings. "She is the mouth of the Mississippi/She is the deadliest undertow," she cries at the climax, opening her clenched teeth to sing out in misty-eyed proclamation of natural beauty.

-- Matt Parish