Through the Devil Softly

Through the Devil Softly is the second studio album from Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions. Recorded over a two-year period between 2007 and 2009 in Northern California and Ireland, the album was released by Nettwerk on 28 September 2009 (see 2009 in music) - eight years after the release of their previous studio album, Bavarian Fruit Bread. The set won critical acclaim for its dark and complex production, with the group employing unorthodox techniques such as sudden and abrupt time signature shifts coupled with frequent use of "irrational" measure lengths, such as in "Satellite" (see audio sample). The production also utilized the use of intricate musical arrangements, with several songs on the album featuring no discernible choruses, such as "Sets the Blaze," "Trouble" and "Blue Bird." "Golden Hair," a cover of the Syd Barrett track from his 1970 album The Madcap Laughs, was released with the March 2010 issue of Mojo magazine. Originally an acoustic song set to the words of James Joyce's poem "Lean Out of the Window", the track was radically altered and rearranged into a psychedelic rock piece, extending the original's duration from under two-minutes to over 6:30. On August 10, 2010, the song was released as a non-album single, backed with the b-side "Suddenly Beside You." The track served as the closing encore for every Warm Inventions show since its release.