ARTiST: Bonnie Prince Billy
ALBUM: Lie Down In The Light
BiTRATE: 175kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Domino Recording Co.
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 60.60 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 45min 38sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-05-24
STORE DATE: 2008-05-19
Track List:
--------
01. Easy Does It 3:53
02. You Remind Me Of Something (The 3:56
Glory Goes)
03. So Everyone 4:01
04. For Every Field There's A Mole 3:19
05. (Keep Eye On) Other's Gain 4:35
06. You Want That Picture 3:50
07. Missing One 2:47
08. What's Missing Is 4:27
09. Where Is The Puzzle? 3:50
10. Lie Down In The Light 4:09
11. Willow Trees Bend 4:08
12. I'll Be Glad 2:43
Release Notes:
--------
Sneaking up on you with all the stealth of a Raconteurs album, Bonnie 'Prince'
Billy returns with a brand new album - not a covers album (like the recent Ask
Forgiveness) and not a sketched collection of demos (like the even more recent
Wai Notes), but a proper studio-recorded follow-up to 2006's The Letting Go.
Musically, Lie Down In The Light is a lot less flashy and polished than its
Valgeir Sigurdsson-produced predecessor, dropping the string sections and
carefully sculpted electronic elements in favour of a more traditional country
sound, the most recent precedent for which would be Master & Everyone. Overall
you'd have to view this newie as a generally more upbeat affair than that 2003
LP, but both albums benefit from the bright, unfussy production of Lambchop's
Mark Nevers. In addition to a core band comprising brother Paul Oldham,
guitarist Emmett Kelly and new vocal partner Ashley Webber, the Bonnie Prince
plays host to an extended cast of contributors, providing trad Nashville
elements like pedal steel and fiddle, or less obviously country-compatible
instruments like trombone and clarinet (the latter of which lends a slight
ragtime feel to 'For Every Field There's A Mole'). It's oddly refreshing to hear
an artist of Will Oldham's calibre shying away from any pressures to push his
sound into unexpected directions, and instead return to such well-trodden
territory as the articulate Western sounds heard on this album. He's just
writing songs - and they're plenty good enough to not require any dressing up or
twisting. Oldham actually sounds unconventionally chipper on the likes of 'So
Everyone', which exudes a joyful classic rocking cheer, and based on first
impressions there's really not much here to indicate Oldham's penchant for
comically overstated grimness, as most famously illustrated on I See A Darkness.
In some senses Lie Down In The Light is too crowded a record for introspection
even, and only during a few rare instances (notably 'Missing One' and the
album's title track) does Oldham sound sufficiently left to his own devices to
establish a real intimacy with the listener. That actually might be a good
thing: it's great to hear him stepping away a little from that clichΘ of the
solitary singer-songwriter and embracing a more outward-looking music. Highly
Recommended.