Dead Man’s Bones are Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling - star of The Notebook, Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl - and Zach Shields, also an actor. That’s enough about them; what they’ve made is truly great.Their brainchild is a concept album about a doomed monster-ghost love story. It almost became the soundtrack to a Gene Kelly/Fred Astaire stageshow about a doomed monster-ghost love story, but things didn’t go to plan. Thankfully two (multi-talented) men can only do so much before they hit 30, because this unruly assortment of grisly songs, straddling trashy 50s B-movie soundtrack, classic Doo Wop, and Old Music Hall balladry is surprisingly spacious, wondrously simple, and definitely not in need of theatrical accompaniment.With titles like 'Dead Hearts', 'Buried in Water', and 'My Body’s a Zombie For You', each track elaborates on the gothic theme, with Gosling’s voice-from-the-grave croon deliciously wrapping itself around werewolves, zombies and losing one’s soul. Because it’s Gosling (there he is again) it would all be a bit Twilight New Moon-sexy, if it weren’t for the singing children gilding every verse. Like their makeshift mum-made Halloween costumes, there’s something gloriously anti-cool about a kid’s choir. Though this being LA, they did poach them from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, the facility founded by Flea from the Chillis.The kids weren’t the only amateurs on board. Gosling and Shields took up instruments they had never played before, which shows. But what with the underwater distortions, and the recycled field recordings, wailings and miaows all meticulously arranged, what emerges from this dream-turned-record is the claptrap sound of a zombie masquerade. Which works.And it’s not all gramophones and velvet curtains. Panoramic heart-wrencher 'Dead Hearts' summons the spirit of the Wild West, sliding through muffled heartbeats, rolling tumbleweed and Ry Cooder strings, and quoting the genius line of some dead cowboy: "I won’t go whistling by your grave, if you won’t go whistling by mine". (The accompanying animated video ”“ featuring a wandering ‘wishbone’ pacing the desert wilderness - is inspired.) Born from a different and cheerier universe entirely, Pa Pa Power’s synthy rainbow of keys and handclaps refashions an Annie-style refrain into an Arcade Fire singalong.It’s a haunting, heartfelt, astute record dug up from some truly murky depths. It’s also pretty funny. In the words of the LA kids: "I wish that we were magic. So we wouldn’t be so young, and tragic." I couldn’t agree more.

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