Mesmerizing | Superwolf | Bonnie Prince Billy, Sweeney

A Prince Becoming King | Superwolf | Bonnie Prince Billy, Sweeney

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	• Superwolf Bonnie Prince Billy, Sweeney Drag City, 2005 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"Why aren't you kind to me? You could so easily..."

I don't want to write a lengthy review or reiterate what you have already read in the preceding reviews, but let it be said that this album is amazing, and you should at the very least take the time to listen to the previews above in either the Windows Media or Real format before navigating away from this page. "Bed is for Sleeping" or "Beast for Thee" are the popular tracks and contain Oldham's most accessible singing in his entire career. He has come a long way from his shaky, cracking vocals on albums like "There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You" and "Days in the Wake". Sweeney's guitar work here is gorgeous and also not to be missed.

Notes on the limited edition- a bit of a ripoff- no extra tracks or artwork. In fact the only thing better is that it's a cardboard DigiPak. It's even missing out the funny drawing of "Will and Matt" contained in the standard edition.

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Mesmerizing

Fans of Palace Brothers/Bonnie Prince Billy will find much to love in this album. It's much richer and more electrified in its arrangement than the spare recordings of earlier days, but I think it really works.

A Prince Becoming King

Will Oldham is an artist who has for years been hovering just outside the lens of the indie genre he is often credited with having birthed. Funny thing is, he never, for a moment, seems to want to let the categorizers of music zero in on him. Most reading this review are probably aware of how he has embraced the alter-ego concept and sent about 5 different monikers flying off into musical space, and how, after 5 incredible albums under his most recent nom de plume, he seems to have settled comfortably on the wonderfully cryptic and nonsensical Bonnie "Prince" Billy. With Superwolf, his latest release with the disgustingly talented Matt Sweeney and the follow-up to the devastatingly dark and beautiful Master & Everyone, Will Oldham the man has taken a bold step forward and assumed his place somewhere alongside the likes of Neil Young and Bob Dylan as a mature and persisting musical genius who can do no wrong with ink or guitar strings-and, in this case, yet unexplored electric guitar strings. In terms of career progression, Superwolf is Oldham's Rust Never Sleeps, his Before the Flood. It is a signed affidavit to all doubters that he is the real deal.

From Sweeney's very first riff on "My Home Is the Sea," one can immediately sense an assertiveness in Oldham's voice that was absent on previous undertakings. This contrasted with dramatic shifts in the shaky, tortured falsetto that has become his trademark, what you have are some unusual flourishes to what has thus been a consistently dark sound, a sliver of light in that ever-darkening canon of his. "Beast for Thee" and "Bed Is for Sleeping" are sad ballads filled with brief glimmers of hope by Sweeney's dreamy guitar playing, while "Rudy Foolish" and "Only Someone Running" are devastating tracks in and of themselves, but with arrangements and harmonies that somehow keep the thing floating above water, up there in the sunlight. The rest of the album is pure aching bliss, with the middle track, "Lift Us Up," serving as the crescendo and centerpiece, making the ebb and flow of agony and ecstasy a symmetrical two-faced beast. When I took a few of my friends to see this sparsely attended concert live, one (who'd never even heard of Bonnie "Prince" Billy) said, "My God, that was triumphant..."

As an added bonus, the album itself is full of interesting little tidbits, like the rather wordy political insert with interesting insights into cannibis and alcohol obsessed cultures, as well as the lovely sadistic artwork. Hearts drawn in blood and beautiful pornography are some of the contradictions offered, reflecting the richness and oddness of the man and his music. And there's a priceless shot of both men on the back cover, Sweeney looking stoned out of his mind in aviator shades, and Oldham in what looks like a mechanics overalls stringing an electric guitar. Given the accessibility of this album, if you've never heard of Bonnie "Prince" Billy (like many of my now-obsessed friends never did), this is a good place to get hooked.

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Goose bumps

This album took a few listens before I got it, but when I did it blew me across the room. This is heavy stuff, deep, reflective and dark. Listen to Blood Embrace to see what I mean. Wow!

Super

Mr. Oldham pulls it off once again, this time with the help of Mr. Sweeney. Another CD which will find high rotation in my player. Glad to see that the Greatest Palace Music was something that "had to be done" rather than a shift in musical focus (or rather a discovery of predicatbility). What's next...Oldham/Pajo/Sweeney doing Zwan covers? :)

When word spread through indie gossip sites that Bonnie Prince Billy AKA Will Oldham AKA Palace was set to team with Matt Sweeney of Chavez, Zwan and Man ?Zine fame, unless you were a dedicated fan of elaborate facial hair, it seemed hard to be very intrigued. But the Superwolf collaboration between the two is frayed, fuzzy and undeniably excellent. It?s hard not to get hooked from the first song, which declares "I am under your spell/ And you will have me I reckon," a near six-minute epic that goes from moody sparse organ bit to absolutely choogling guitar part, the words shouted like some Southern anthem or ancient sea shanty until it ends with an elongated coda that sounds a lot like a Jerry Garcia solo album. It sounds a bit like Neil Young ca. Tonight?s the Night covering British folk singer Nic Jones? Penguin Eggs album. Sweeney and Oldham play most of the instruments and though the vocals are mostly by Oldham, they do harmonize well. It?s remarkable how Oldham continues to reinvent and reinvigorate his mystic mountain man persona The truly surprising thing is that the rest of the album is just as ridiculously good. --Mike McGonigal

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