EMA, "Past Life Martyred Saints"

The former Gowns and Amps For Christ member spins her previous projects’ art-damaged electric folk into a spare vehicle for the blues. It’s no coincidence that her first single, “The Grey Ship”—a Viking-inspired dirge about being carried away in a funeral boat—was backed by a 16-minute Robert Johnson cover. Buzz-building move that it was, her extended take on “Kind Hearted Woman Blues” readied listeners for this impossibly bleak, physically taxing, depths-plumbing experience …

But it’s the right kind of pain. Find out why — read on at The A.V. Club.