The boogieman, Wikipedia tells us, exists in various forms around the world, known as Sack Man, El Coco, Babau, Butzemann, Bala, and many other names. For Strange Roux, it’s cause for a dark flirtation with an amorphous dark side. Singer Michelle Cunningham smiles for the back cover, but she sings like she’s seen it all, especially at night, and is still deciding, beat by beat, how much to tell.

It’s a “Cold, Cold World” indeed, especially with the frosty, sharp rings and slides of Jason Kareores and John Thompson on guitars. In Strange Roux’s sonic New Orleans, odd beauty sits side-by-side with desperate characters nodding for another bourbon, gleaming predator eyes, and maybe, just maybe, some tentacles slithering out from under the manhole cover in the alleyway. Take a ticket, buy the ride.