Carey Mercer, the mad genius behind Victoria’s Frog Eyes, returns to his Blackout Beach pseudonym for his second solo release, Skin of Evil, an intensely focused set of obsessive poetics and elusive narratives. As Blackout Beach, Mercer’s idiosyncratic vocal style (a possessed, operatic howl obscured by twisted inflection and obtuse syntax) is not so much departed from as it is stripped down and refined. Like the free-verse storytelling of Nick Cave’s From Her to Eternity, Skin of Evil chronicles the romantic/militaristic pursuit of one Donna; an oblique affair fraught with jealousy, despair and tragic resolution — I think. Musically, Mercer’s guitar playing is restrained, yet still intense (especially at the end of “Three Men Drown in the River”). And sharing vocal harmonies with Carolyn Mark and Megan Boddy proves an oddly beautiful combination throughout, particularly on “Nineteen, One God, One Dull Star.” Hardly the kind of music for a house-party playlist, Blackout Beach is best consumed alone, with the lyric sheet and a great deal of patience.