If you're adrift on roiling seas, a looming coastline doesn't necessarily promise safety. Suffused in an eerie haze, it can harbor inglorious ghosts, hidden perils and uncertain futures. Not too different from life in 21st century America, as presented by Rob Seidenberg on The Eerie Shore, the sixth release by Globe Factory No. 23.

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A veteran record producer and record exec in Austin, TX, Seidenberg takes a long, hard look outward (at the country's careening geo-political landscape), inward (at life's sometimes-harsh/sometimes-joyful lessons) and how the twain ever do meet and influence each other. At times defiant and loud, at other moments moody and introspective, the album responds with vivid, hook-filled, literate rock & roll built on a foundation of timeless musical roots.

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The title character of Tex-Mex rocker "Tranquilo Joe" feels none too welcome in the U.S. of A. The numbskull a.k.a. "Mister Ego" enjoys testing the bounds of his narcissism-fueled power. For the border-separated lovers of "Where the Water Meets the Land," the snaky Rio Grande river feels as oceanic as the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the album's everyday workers can either resign themselves to this new reality ("The Best That It Gets") or gird themselves to fight for what's right ("Has To Be Done").

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But it's not all glum and glummer. There's joy--of a still-promising life filled with adventure and surprises (the blue-collar epic "A Beautiful Day"). There's pride and hope ("Oh Buffalo," a paean to the reborn Rust Belt city). And there's a road-worn, damn-the-torpedos attitude of the 12-string-driven "Nothing Left to Lose." Ultimately, though, as stated in the album's dubious lead-off track, "Only Time Will Tell."