oy Kills Sorrow's second album (their first for Signature Sounds) effortlessly merges influences as diverse as bluegrass, jazz, indie rock, folk, R&B, and Celtic traditions. The music that emerges is dark and often funny, ruminating on modern life and love with eloquence and wit. Darkness Sure Becomes This City presents a radical new strain of folk music, one that bravely breaks with tradition even as it salutes the past. The Boston-based string band brings a decidedly modern sensibility to an old-world sound, channeling the prodigious talents of its individual members into elegant arrangements and well-crafted songs. While the group pays due homage to its Bluegrass roots--its name is taken from WJKS, a radio station that broadcasted the Monroe brothers' show in the 1930s--the band truly excels in its rich and textured treatment of more contemporary material.