Swet Deth by Crooked Fingers

One afternoon, Eric Bachmann’s son returned home from school with a sheath of pictures he’d drawn, all of them macabre. “There were crows and sinister figures with scythes and tombstones,” he recalls, “and in the center, there was a strange, lush green tree growing out of all of this red and black. On one of them, he had written ‘DETH, SWET DETH,’ and everything clicked in my head.”

Swet Deth, Bachmann’s first album under his Crooked Fingers moniker after a 15-year hiatus, organized itself around the image: its songs are about death, yes, but there’s a sweetness to them, a wry sensibility to his lyrics that comes from having experienced many kinds of death and the life that follows in its wake.

Tracklist

1.	Cold Waves (w/ Mac McCaughan)	3:21

2.	From All Ways (w/ Matt Berninger)
3.	Spray Tan Speed Queen (In A German Car)
4.	Insomnia	2:40

5.	Empty Love and Cheap Thrills
6.	Haunted (w/ Sharon Van Etten)	2:55

7.	Hospital
8.	(I'm Your) Bodhisattva
9.	Lena
10.	Steady Now

Credits

releases February 27, 2026

Eric Bachmann: vocals, guitars, pianos, basses
Jeremy Wheatley: drums, percussion
Jon Rauhouse: pedal steel
Mac McCaughan: vocals on “Cold Waves”
Matt Berninger: vocals on “From All Ways”
Skylar Gudasz: vocals on “Spray Tan Speed Queen (In a German Car)” and “(I’m Your) Bodhisattva”
Avery Leigh Draut: vocals on “Empty Love and Cheap Thrills”
Sharon Van Etten: vocals on “Haunted”
Liz Durrett: vocals on “Hospital”

All songs written by Eric Bachmann except “(I’m Your) Bodhisattva,” written by Renee-Louise Carafice. Drums and acoustic guitars recorded by Kyle Spence at RJS. All other sounds recorded, arranged and mixed by Eric Bachmann. Mastered by Joel Hatstat at High Jump Media. Cover art by Eli S. Bachmann. Layout by Daniel Murphy. Matt Berninger appears courtesy of Concord Records. Sharon Van Etten appears courtesy of Jagjaguwar Records.

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