Why? lead singer Yoni Wolf grapples with a host of big issues on 2009’s Eskimo Snow. This bleak yet playful work tackles intricate questions of sex and mortality with a fine sense of the absurd. In contrast to the hip-hop focus of previous efforts, Eskimo Snow favors sweet pop melodies dressed up in multi-layered arrangements with country, folk and Off-Broadway overtones. Wolf sings his intricately rhymed lyrics in a flat, pinched voice, tossing off droll observations about dead animals and self-abuse with a wry, often pained air. The downbeat content of the material is brightened by twinkling pianos, shimmering vibraphones and eruptions of snarling electric guitar. Standout tracks include “Even the Good Wood Gone” (a meticulously imagined tale of a mummy waking up in a museum), “Berkeley by Hearseback” (an evocative ballad with Old Testament references) and “This Blackest Purse” (matching a dazzling cascade of quirky imagery to a luminous, pulsating track). Smart, kooky and oddly moving, Eskimo Snow distills fun out of fatalism.