Personnel: Vic Chesnutt (vocals, guitar, harmonica, trombone, omnichord, keyboards); Curtiss Pernice (vocals, guitar); Eric Harris (bells).

Audio Mixer: Derek Almstead.

Recording information: Vic's Attic Studios, Athens, GA (2007-2008).

Although they're fellow residents of Athens, Georgia, southern gothic singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt and psychedelic ragamuffins Elf Power don't necessarily seem at first glance to be ideal creative partners. But DARK DEVELOPMENTS, the first full-length collaboration between Chesnutt and Elf Power, is a marvel, the most top-to-bottom-solid record either artist has been involved in for years. Chesnutt adds a hint of Flannery O'Connor-style madness and novelistic detail to songs like "The Mad Passion of the Stoic" and "Bilocating Dog," while Elf Power's Elephant 6-derived neo-psychedelic experimentalism is a perfect musical match for Chesnutt's idiosyncratic storytelling. DARK DEVELOPMENTS is an extraordinarily compelling album.