Anyone who elicits comparisons with literary and cinema giants such as John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy, John Ford and Sergio Leone gets my vote.

Calexico traverse the same terrain as all of the above - small lives lived within the big country. Like McCarthy especially, they have always acknowledged a strong Mexican influence. If ever anyone gets round to making a film of McCarthy's border trilogy of books (All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities Of The Plain) Calexico are tailor-made for the soundtrack. Carried To Dust might just be their magnum opus. It's partially the story of a writer in Los Angeles around the time of the writers' strike who embarks on an odyssey that includes snow drops in Moscow, leaning houses in Valparaiso, abandoned New Orleans neighbourhoods and a man-made lake of cell-phone trees.

There are some powerful songs here, not least 'Victor Jara's Hands', 'Inspiracion', 'Slowness' and 'House Of Valparaiso', and guest appearances by Americana cohorts Sam Beam (Iron And Wine), Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback), Pieta Brown and Amparo Sanchez (Amparanoia). Willie Nelson's harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, puts his mark on 'Bend In The Road'.

David Burke