Sometimes a revolving door of talented friends can kill an album; for Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, it just makes for compelling music. The border-town outlaw mood that underpins the band’s desert-noir style is still ever-present on Edge of the Sun. “Miles from the Sea,” with its epic scope and Burns’ smoky voice, could play over a scene straight out of A Fistful of Dollars, but a song like “Falling from the Sky” folds Texas swing, folk-rock, spacy electronics and Band Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell (on soaring background vocals) into a sleek gem of alt-country pop—and that’s just the beginning. Further on, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam lends “Bullets & Rocks” a slice of brooding menace, Neko Case elevates “Tapping on the Line” with flawless harmonies, and Baja-born singer Carla Morrison transforms the tech-mariachi of “Cumbia De Donde” into a rousing cantina chant. It’s no wonder that Burns and Convertino wrote the bulk of the album in Mexico City; it’s a megalopolis of influences, but somehow it all holds together.