The Old Ceremony from Chapel Hill is back with its sophomore effort and first release on filmmaker Gill Holland’s sonaBLAST! Records. Walk on Thin Air is a restrained and moodier version of the group’s debut, self-titled and self-released record. While the self-titled album boasts a number of pop gems, including the irrepressibly catchy “Papers in Order,” Walk on Thin Air is, well, thin on superficial pop hooks, and heavy on lyrical and aural introspection.

Songwriter Django Haskins sings in a voice that conveys depth of emotion, while his lyrics are flirtatiously dark. Perhaps more so than many modern singers, Haskins is equally comfortable singing about the sacred as he is the profane. On “Boy Prince” Haskins channels the innocence of a post-Beatles John Lennon, while on “The Disappear” he sounds downright devilish. “Til My Voice Is Gone” is an anthemic number that is the closest thing the album has to a pop single. On the more fleshed-out songs on Walk on Thin Air, The Old Ceremony is theatrical like Coldplay without being pretentious, and melodic like Fastball and The Killers. Perhaps influenced by Haskin’s namesake - Django Reinhardt - the group’s songs also have elements of jazz.

Though The Old Ceremony hasn’t yet figured out how to channel the energy of its incendiary live shows onto tape, it makes it up with stellar musicianship. The air might be thin up where The Old Ceremony dwells, but it’s worth a visit for the 48 minutes this album lasts.

John Seay