A soft-rock singer-songwriter with a subversive streak, Cass McCombs plays it relatively straight on Wit’s End, singing minimalist, funeral-paced songs in a pained, delicate croon evoking a creepy-crawly isolation. … The ravishing soul ballad “County Line” comes on like a sensual call for reconciliation, but the lyrics only bring recriminations: “Hoping nothing’s changed, that your pain is never-ending,” he sings, before sinking the knife in with a heart-melting Eddie Kendricks falsetto. Wit’s End leans a little too heavily on dark-hearted dirges — most songs extend beyond the five-minute mark, and feel much longer — but McCombs allows occasional flickers of light to peek into the blackness, and they seem to shine all the brighter. MORE