Still there's something comforting about an album that relies on half-whispered vocals and distorted guitars instead of wack synthesizer melodies and Eighties-inspired choruses. The sweet-sounding Matt Kadane and the sardonic Bubba Kadane sing about neurotic thoughts and fractured relationships in voices just low enough to blur the words and stick them into your subconscious. Though The End Is Near is not as accomplished (the unfortunate result of fewer keepers than before) as the Texan brothers' memorable New Year debut, 2001's Newness Ends, they lead you to a dark place illuminated by the mind churning, analyzing.