Now that Fall has finally descended upon the Ohio Valley, it’s time for Blackberry Belle.

Greg Dulli initially started The Twilight Singers as a side project to the band that brought him to the dance, The Afghan Whigs. After that group broke up and a few years off the scene, Dulli had an album of jams ready for release that was entirely shelved when his friend Ted Demme died. His mood took a turn for the melancholy, and as he had many times before he exorcised those feelings through creating music.

Dulli’s work in this vein is the ultimate in catharsis. Inspired in part by Jack London’s semi-autobiographical novel Martin Eden (in which, tellingly, the main character commits suicide), Blackberry Belle seems to be a concept album about a person’s life flashing before their eyes. It takes you for a ride, but it drops you back off again where it found you with a changed perspective.

For as dark as it might be, it’s ultimately about hope. For what life is, could be, and what might lie beyond. You can buy it here.