slaves' graves & ballads is the third album by american experimental rock band dirty projectors. it is a combination of two different recordings entitled "slaves' graves" and "ballads", hence the name of the lp combination of the two. the two sessions have drastically different sounds: the first features frontman and guitarist david longstreth accompanied by a chamber orchestra called "the orchestral society for the preservation of the orchestra"; the second features dave and his guitar recorded by adam forkner. on this release tracks 1-7 includes the "slaves' graves" songs while tracks 8-14 constitutes "ballads".