Calexico

Carried to Dust follows Calexico's rolling tumbleweed of rock, folk, country and mariachi inspirations throughout the American Southwest, Mexico, Chile and even Moscow. Bringing to mind Iron & Wine's globe-trotting The Shepherd's Dog (Sam Beam guests on "House of Valparaiso"), the album waltzes under a cloud of ominous beauty that flows from the woozy, Spanish-speckled tale of Victor Jara to a tightly constructed rocker about an abandoned city ("Man Made Lake"), a ghostly ballad set in Russia's capital ("Red Blooms") and the twinkling, ambient closer "Contention City."