Tense and fevered, confused but faithful, and with a haunting attractiveness, Woven Hand is essentially 16 Horsepower frontman David Eugene Edwards' side project. The group ranges track to track, from just Edwards performing each instrument himself to a quartet.

A startling album, Consider the Birds just might do as much for your soul as a Sunday-morning trip to your sanctuary of choice. It is not specifically religious, but is packed with those ideas and words: Holy king, the Lord, covenant, judgment, glory and honor. And at times the lyrics are more than vague allusions, as in "In The Piano," which begins with the text from a traditional Gloria Patri: "Glory be to the Father/and to the Son/and to the Holy Ghost/As it was in the beginning/is now and ever shall be/World without end/Amen."

This is not an overtly religious album, dogmatically speaking. But such text is interwoven, an inseparable background to Edwards' songs. But despite their supernatural elements, his stories feel homey, lived-in, not unlike what one might experience with Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, or, for that matter, such great Southern American writers as William Faulkner. More than strict narratives or even specific messages, Edwards' lyrics tend to be scenes' feels. One gets the idea if not all of the specifics.

Edwards' voice is a strong if not particularly nimble or subtle baritone. It quivers at times with his pleas and demands, with his apologies and his judgments. He is an able if not special foreground for the dramatics behind him. For the music, even when performed by Edwards alone, is always powerful and strong in its movements. Its acoustic guitars, banjos, pianos, organs and bagpipes, they are fitting to their subject matter.

But for all its strength and drama throughout, Consider the Birds lacks beauty, at least as beauty relates to light or color. It is a dark album, almost pained and therefore uncomfortable. Its melodies are more chants, and not even of the church it so often invokes but of tribes, intimidating. It is memorable not specifically, but generally, almost as a concept rather than as songs. The album is interesting and worthwhile. But it is not beautiful.

6,3 (out of 10)