Will Oldham - Songs of Love and Horror

On one hand, I've probably not given this record the time it deserves, but on the other, I think if I enjoyed it more I would give it more time. And thinking about it, I have played it quite a lot in various attempts to get into it, but I still consider it one of those records I haven't played enough.

It didn't come with mp3s, so the odds were stacked against it from the off. The other factor that didn't help is that it's not the first album I have of Will Oldham re-recording his own songs, and that album was a huge disappointment (so, much like so many others, this story goes back long before this record even came out). I bought Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Sings Palace's Greatest Hits quite soon after getting into his music - he'd released so many albums and they were all so readily available I figured a compilation of sorts would be a great way to sample a bunch of his songs. But on that album he re-recorded some of his earlier songs in a country-style and the results are not what I came to his music to hear. I've not listened to that cd in many, many years (although I'm now wondering if I should give it another chance). I'd heard New Partner on the excellent Is It the Sea? live album, but the version on Sings Palace's Greatest Hits was not my cup of tea in the slightest. (This version feels very casual in the verses, but suitably solemn in the chorus.) That cd made me tread with caution through the rest of his back-catalogue and I've not been so care-free since.

So when I saw this album was coming out, I decided not to buy it. But then, just after Christmas in 2018, I was in Banquet on what is now an increasingly rare trip and fancied buying a lot of new vinyl. I saw this one in the racks and it was an easy sell when I was already dropping a lot of money. I figured he wouldn't pull the same trick twice (country covers) and it started with I See a Darkness, a song that I think everyone agrees is not only one of his finest songs, but one of the finest songs full stop. I also spotted New Partner on the tracklisting, but that was the extent of the songs I knew by title. I actually have half of these songs in my collection in their original forms, but that's mostly because The Letting Go spawned three of the songs here. One of those, The Way, is a highlight here, but still not as good as the original.

All of which brings me to I See a Darkness itself. I'd go so far as to say that there's not been a bad cover of that song because I've only ever heard good ones. I'm no huge fan of Johnny Cash, nor do I have the American albums that he recorded towards the end of his life, but I've heard a lot of the covers he did of more recent songs, and his cover of I See a Darkness is up there with Hurt in terms of the most hauntingly appropriate songs for him to sing. With that in mind, I'd go so far as to say this isn't even the best cover of the song. It's really nice, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't add anything. That said, it's always nice to hear any version of it because it's such a beautiful song.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £18 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 27/12/18
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: None

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light

There was a period of time when I bought lots of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy records, and a period where I slowed way down and tried to make much more considered purchases from his back-catalogue. William Oldham's music is not something I universally love; in fact, he veers into territory that I don't like almost as much as he makes incredible music.

On one hand, he released I See a Darkness, one of the best and most interesting folk records I've ever heard, not to mention the darkest. I also have a couple of great live albums of his, and I really enjoyed the album with The Cairo Gang. On the other hand, I can't listen to Sings Palace's Greatest Hits, and there are a good handful of albums that are completely unremarkable. This album, the third of his I bought (after I See a Darkness and There Is No One That Will Take Care of You), falls into the latter category.

I bought this album about a week after it came out as my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers that week. The first disappointment (albeit a small one) was that it wasn't blue vinyl, which would have been such an obvious choice. The much bigger disappointment was that none of the edginess of the two albums I knew was present - despite the two being very different, both had a lot going on that made them interesting; Lie Down in the Light was kinda bland, with little excitement. It did nothing for me then, and every attempt to get into since has been equally underwhelming.

There was one incident that meant the album made some impression on me, but it literally the only one - in May 2012 we saw Bonnie 'Prince' Billy play a special show with Trembling Bells in the Union Chapel in London, although it was much more "Trembling Bells featuring Will Oldham" than the other way around. I suspect the vast majority in attendance that night also wished it was the other way around (they supported him when I saw him play an incredible set in Shepherd's Bush in 2010). I was there with a handful of friends, three of whom decided halfway through that it was so bad that they'd rather be in the pub. Somehow, the message didn't make it the whole way across the pew so Rich and I didn't know they were actually leaving, but probably would have watched the rest of the show anyway.

After they left, the band played the best song of the evening by far, a song I later realised was So Everyone from this album. I recognised the song; despite not having played this album a huge amount, the catchy chorus had lodged itself in my mind and I made an effort to figure out which album it was from when I got home. I was surprised that it was from Lie Down in the Light, partly because I didn't think I'd played it enough to remember any of it, but partly because I didn't think there was anything on the album remotely memorable. I stand corrected - it has one memorable song. If I was making a compilation of my favourite Will Oldham songs, it'd make the cut.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 27/05/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: None

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Cold & Wet

This 7" truly acted as a sampler of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy for me. I'd heard a song of his on 120 Minutes late night on MTV and shortly later found this 7" in HMV in Lancaster. I'd enjoyed the song I saw on MTV and made a mental note to check him out; it seemed like too much of a coincidence that this 7" would be there so soon afterwards, so I bought it and began a journey of discovering his vast back-catalogue (something I'm still working on). Five days later I was in Brighton and decided to buy an album, opting for his classic I See a Darkness by complete chance (perhaps the title drew me in). It's almost worrying that I might have easily bought Sings Palace's Greatest Hits instead and had a far worse third impression of Will Oldham's music.

Cold and Wet is from his most recent album at the time, The Letting Go, which received some pretty high praise at the time. I've fairly recently bought The Letting Go and it is a pretty great record. Buried Treasure is a live BBC recording of, what I have just this minute discovered, a Bee Gees song. Needless to say, it sounds nothing like The Bee Gees, but does sound excellent. It says a lot about Will Oldham that he can make like a Bee Gees song without me knowing.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: HMV Lancaster
When: 20/11/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness

I See a Darkness is one of the darkest albums I own, if not the darkest. And I mean that in a good way - it's also one of my all-time favourites. It says a lot about an album that even when Johnny Cash covered the title-track on his death-bed, he couldn't even come near how dark the original is.

One of the things I love most about I See a Darkness is that it was by complete chance that it became the first Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album I heard/bought. I'd heard one of his songs, thought it was nice and picked up the Cold and Wet 7" in my local HMV. Five days later I was in Brighton and wandered into Resident Records on the Lanes (I had to check why I was there, but it was because I was going to see Peeping Tom in London that weekend and decided to visit my friends at uni in Brighton - after you've travelled from Lancaster, Brighton isn't that much further than London). I'd played my 7" at most a few times but decided then would be a good time to buy a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album; they had a bunch to choose from and they were all between £7 and £10 (on cd).

This is where the brilliant chance happened, because I knew nothing about any of his albums (this was, of course, prior to the days of checking reviews on one's smartphone in the shop) and ended up choosing what is generally considered to be his finest work (a thought reinforced by the huge cheer that went up when he started to play I See a Darkness in Shepherd's Bush Empire a few years back). I've since bought a lot of his other albums under the various names William Oldham has worked, and none of them have been anywhere near as good. I'm missing a few still, but I wonder how things would have panned out had I bought the dubious Sings Palace's Greatest Hits first? I See a Darkness wasn't even the cheapest, but something about it drew me. The artwork and titles certainly give you a clue that it's not going to be an uplifting affair, and maybe I thought, having heard only three songs, that Will was the man to make an album with such a title live up to it's potential.

And does it! It's a wonderfully bleak album. The songs are perfectly minimal, but full when they need to be. My favourite, Nomadic Revery (All Around), builds up to be this huge song. Similarly, Madaleine Mary, comes in with a kick that you weren't expecting. Then, of course, there's the title track, Death to Everyone, and Black. There's not a bad moment in the 11 songs. I swear the cd is intentionally a few decibels quieter then most albums too - perhaps to make you turn the amp up higher than you ever normally would, and to make you listen in closer and more intently (although does rule its songs out when making mixtapes, sadly). I bought this LP only the other week (at the Independent Record Label Market), but it's been an album I've wanted on vinyl for years.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with Harem Scarem and Alex Nielson - Is it the Sea?

There used to be this show on MTV2 called 120 Minutes, which they would show very late at night and consisted of two hours of music videos of obscure songs that they'd never play during the day. It was quite a mixed bag, but there were some great songs and it felt like a shame that it was resigned to the graveyard shift. Still, I'd watch it from time to time, and on one such occasion I heard a song by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, who at that point I'd never heard of. I don't remember what the song was, but I enjoyed it, and stumbled across a 7" of his in my local HMV. I was later in Resident Records in Brighton and thought I'd pick up an album of his. They had a few, and by chance I bought I See a Darkness, which became one of my all-time favourite albums.

Since then I've had hit-and-miss luck with buying other Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Palace Music/Will Oldham albums. Lie Down in the Light didn't do a huge amount for me and Sings Palace's Greatest Hits was just odd. This live album, however, is one of his solid gold releases. I found it in Spillers on the last Tuesday-record-from-Spillers Tuesday of the year and thought the track listing was pretty nice; the info on the sleeve mentioned the unlisted vinyl-only bonus tracks of the incredible I See a Darkness and Love in the Hot Afternoon, and I knew and liked Minor Place and New Partner. My confidence in his music had been knocked but this record reminded me quite how incredible his songs and voice are. Along with the four titles I mentioned, Wolf Among Wolves, Molly Bawn, and Master and Everyone are all fantastic (the last one in particular; I ended up buying that the album Master and Everyone purely because of that song). The other five musicians add so much to the performance too, especially the female backing vocals.

The bonus tracks are a particularly nice touch, not only because the version of I See a Darkness is even more haunting than the original, but because of the fact they're there; so often bonus tracks are a cd-only affair, so it's nice not to be punished for buying the record. On top of that, they're included in the strangest way - side 4 finishes up on Master and Everyone and the needle runs off around a groove in the middle of the side. You then have to pick up the arm and place it back down on a fresh groove a few millimeters further in to play the last two. The gatefold sleeve is pretty lovely too, with the lyrics to the songs inside.

I'd fully recommend this as both a great intro to Will's extensive back-catalogue and as a great record in it's own right. I'd forgotten about it a little recently, but rediscovered it a few days ago and have been playing it pretty much solidly since then.


Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 15
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 16/12/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no