DE Special Projects Editor

Like watching a cool midsummer night Texas wind carry a dense fog that falls to ground level and spreads equally over everything below it, listeners will get an emotional high from the Cowboy Junkies on its sixth release, Lay it Down.

Known to mainstream music listeners as the band who played Sweet Jane on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, the Junkies have retained its title as the best known unknown band in America.

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Once again the Junkies use its blues, folk, country style of music that has gained it recognition as a critic’s band.

No later than the first song, Something More Besides You, will listeners be seduced by Margo Timmins’ psycho-neurotic, cool-blue voice that hangs quivering above the Junkies soothing arrangement of bluesy twang.

Not since Black Eyed Man has the Junkies’ music seemed so moving or listenable, but the Junkies pulls no new tricks. This is completely Junkies, but much more and definitely no less.

Like on previous albums, the Junkies threads listeners’ ears with a string of songs, each seeming to be a piece in a thought-provoking puzzle.

On the track, A Common Disaster, the band shows its edgy attitude with a bass line reminiscent of the least-aggressive songs on Sonic Youth’s album, Dirty. But hard-core Junkies fans need not worry. The song gets no more aggressive than if Elvis Costello sang Allison on speed, but it still shows a new side to its music.

The most attractive and revealing track is the dark, Johnny Cash-like song, Musical Key. After hearing Margo sing My father said in perfect harmony/My father’s words, meant so much to me, listeners will either go looking for a place to hide or a place closer to a speaker, depending on their stamina for haunting music.

The one thing different on this album is an escalated level of guitar work by Michael Timmins. Part poet, part bluesman and part soothing jazz musician, his guitar almost but does not quite equal the voice of lead singer Margo Timmins.

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Once again it is her voice that shines and gives the Junkies its trademark sound fans have grown to love. Her crystalline voice, seemingly half cowgirl and half Celtic, bounces from one soothing accent to another. What is more amazing, is she does not seem to take a breath while doing so.

There is one insignificant problem with the album. When listening to it, listeners will swear they have heard some of these songs on prior albums. But when listening to music this well designed, that is not such a crime. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.