Crooked Fingers, the long-running moniker for the legendary Eric Bachmann’s output from 1998-2016, is back. On 27th February, 2026, Crooked Fingers will release Swet Deth, their first album since 2011’s Breaks in the Armor. Today, they’re sharing a video for lead single “Cold Waves”, featuring Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan.
Bachmann’s return to Crooked Fingers was compelled by the scope of the songs on Swet Deth, which called for more complex arrangements and larger rooms than his recent solo output. Chasing down what he felt the songs required, he called in a few familiar fiends – Jeremy Wheatley on drums and percussion, Jon Rauhouse on pedal steel – and invited a dream team of new collaborators – including Matt Berninger and Sharon Van Etten – to record. After years of solo touring, the process of expanding his sound stretched and challenged Bachmann in much the same way as recording as Crooked Fingers had in the past, which made the decision to return to the moniker an easy one.
“Cold Waves” is a thrilling reintroduction to what Bachmann is capable of as Crooked Fingers. His wry, sensitive attention to the pains of breaking up are turned anthemic by Wheatley’s drums and given power pop gloss by McCaughan’s harmonies.
Eric Bachmann, on “Cold Waves”:”I dreamed of a beautiful, colossal, six-winged inamorata rising off the horizon above the ashes of the dying earth; arctic lasers pulsating from her eyes and fire streaming from her fingertips, freezing then melting then freezing everything again in an instant; lighting up the night with death and apocalypse, destroying everything in her path. When I woke I realized I had fallen deeply in love with her, but was worried that it was actually a trap, which – in hindsight – it clearly was.”
In addition to Swet Deth, Bachmann and Crooked Fingers are preparing for a 2026 North American tour, with more information to come.
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