The Cultured Girl

Upgrade: Calexico, Garden Ruin
Old favorites: Elliott Smith, Graham Parsons

Arizona-based Calexico has pioneered a sound that might be dubbed “Southwestern folk.” Now, its newest album, Garden Ruin, suggests that the band’s whispery marracas and mariachi brass have collided with 1960s British rock on some dusty red highway. Hushed ballads such as “Yours and Mine” harken back to the languid instrumentals of early albums like Spoke. Then, sharply and efficiently, Garden Ruin veers into the unfamiliar terrain of rollicking summer anthems with “Letter From a Bowie Knife.” Perhaps the most telling track is the sultry and enchanting “Roka,” which uses a Spanish female vocal to accessorize an otherwise pensive indie-rock number.