David Eugene Edwards' day job is that of leader of Christian sect 16 Horsepower. For him each glass is half full, at least here on earth. That is the only thing he is concerned with: the agony of the soul on earth and the salvation of the soul thereafter. That the eternal circle of damnation and redemption yields songs that also make non-Christians shiver pleasantly is a feat he has taken out a patent for.

In recent years it seems that Edwards saves his best songs for his solo-project Woven Hand, the untitled 2002 debut was even lighted up by a pale sun. Subsequently two dance-theatre works were released. "Consider the Birds" now is the proper second album of the man of suffering, who wallows masochistically in the pain of human existence. " I don't have the courage/To carve my splinters out", he wails in "Speakin Hands", accompanied by the dramatic clanging of the piano, undulating through the nave of a church, and a low, dry knock can be heard, as if a bony hand was hammering on heaven's gate.

A woebegone album. Banjos with a gothic feverish delusion, Mormon-like darkness, and Edwards suffers solemnly behind the mike; just one notch further, and he would become ridiculous with his holy earnestness. Can this guy tell a dirty joke?