Sparklehorse

Good Morning Spider
It's A Wonderful Life
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain


Good Morning Spider (Capitol ’99) Rating: A-
After releasing an absurdly titled debut album called Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Mark Linkous, who pretty much is Sparklehorse, died from an accidental drug overdose. Fortunately, he was resuscitated from the great beyond, and he then composed Good Morning Spider during the many arduous months that it took to recover from his ordeal (conjuring memories of Robert Wyatt and Rock Bottom). As you would expect, this resulting second album is both subdued and somber. Unfortunately, a few of these sparsely decorated songs drift prettily by without being especially memorable, and Linkous the producer occasionally sabotages Linkous the songwriter with a deliberately strange “lo-fi” production (most notably on “Happy Man,” which sounds like it was recorded on the wrong frequency). Fortunately, Good Morning Spider is almost always interesting and has quite a few outstanding songs. For example, “Pig” begins the album with a gloriously chaotic rocker, and “Sick Of Goodbyes” (which originally appeared on Cracker’s Kerosene Hat) presents a catchy, singable pop chorus. Elsewhere, the album is comprised primarily of delicate ballads, the best of which are the gorgeously dreamy “Painbirds,” “Sunshine,” which has a sad but oh so hooky keyboard melody, “Hey Joe,” an extremely pretty Daniel Johnston cover, and (my personal favorite) “Maria’s Little Elbows,” a lonesome lament that by all rights should’ve been all over the radio. A highly original and effortlessly graceful songwriter whose gentle warble brings Dean Wareham of Luna to mind, Linkous needs only to better focus his eccentricities in order to produce the major work that he seems eminently capable of. Perhaps an outside producer would help in this regard.

It's A Wonderful Life (Capitol '01) Rating: A-
Well, I got what I wanted in the presence of hot producer Dave Fridmann, which proves to be both a blessing and a curse. Fridmann gives the album a beautifully lush sound and rids Linkous of his lo-fi ways (except on “Devil’s New,” a rare misstep) and his tendency to under-develop songs. However, Sparklehorse has lost some of their startling uniqueness in the process, as the band sounds a lot like recent Mercury Rev/Flaming Lips albums (not surprising given Fridmann’s close association with those bands) rather than standing out as the erratic but dazzlingly original Sparklehorse. As such, It's A Wonderful Life, which is considerably less eclectic and country flavored overall, lacks some of the character of Good Morning Spider, and there are no songs here as great as “Painbirds” or “Martha’s Little Elbows,” or as immediately infectious as “Sick Of Goodbyes.” However, this is a more cohesive and consistent album that is ultimately almost as rewarding (I know, I give them both A-'s, which is an indictment of my flawed rating system as well as an admission that these albums are close in quality), though repeat plays are definitely required to fully appreciate its laid back charms. There are a couple of rockers in “Piano Fire,” which sounds like a less amped up Dinosaur Jr., and “King Of Nails,” whose best trait is its gloriously grungy riffs. However, the experimental Tom Waits cameo (“Dog Door,” which sticks out here like a sore thumb) aside, most of It’s A Wonderful Life contains gorgeously dreamy and gentle ballads with surreal (and strangely animal-obsessed) lyrics. Further guest appearances by P.J. Harvey and The Cardigans’ Nina Persson further enhance the slow, somber mood of the album, which makes for a fine rainy day companion.

Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (Capitol '06) Rating: B+
After a long 5-year layoff, Linkous came back with Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, which if nothing else figures to give Yo La Tengo’s latest album competition for silliest album title of the year (it still doesn’t top Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, though). Questionable album title aside, this is another strong entry from a talented performer, though it isn’t quite as fascinatingly flawed and packed with highlights as Good Morning Spider, or as consistent and cohesive as It's a Wonderful Life. Hardcore fans will also lament the reappearance of several tracks that had already appeared elsewhere (see the note at the end of this review), but most listeners will be gleefully unaware or won’t care, so we’ll just focus on the actual merits of these songs, ok? "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" and “Some Sweet Day” have wonderfully airy summertime choruses, and “Shade and Honey” is a slow building, low-key stunner that may very well be his best song yet. "Return to Me" is a sad and lonely, sparse acoustic ballad reminiscent of Elliott Smith, and on the more rocking front there's "Ghost in the Sky" and "It's Not So Hard," a pair of surging rockers with loud, distorted guitars. Come to think of it, grungy guitars briefly appear on “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” as well, as Linkous adds static, distortion, and assorted blips to many of these tracks, almost as if he's scared to, or simply doesn’t want to, actually write a hit song. As such, some songs here, such as “Getting It Wrong” and “Mountains,” are a tad too lo-fi and abstract for their own good, while the title track starts slow and then doesn’t really do a hell of a lot for 10+ minutes. Its sad and lonely mood is still enticing, though, and the same could be said about the pleasantly groovy “See The Light.” The 7+ minute "Morning Hollow," a duet with Sol Seppy that also features Tom Waits (one of several high-profile people who make extremely low-profile, barely perceptible appearances), is also pretty but quite draggy, but "Knives of Summertime" provides another singable highlight with summery qualities. As for other prototypical Sparklehorse qualities that appear, there’s the usual idiosyncratic, impressionistic lyrics, fragile vocals that occasionally suffer from marble-in-mouth-itis, and all sorts of wrong-yet-right layering of sounds that end up sounding much better than they have any right to. Still, the end result is a very good rather than great Sparklehorse album, though in truth he’s yet to totally nail down the masterpiece album that I believe he has in him. Whether he delivers on that lofty promise or not remains to be seen, but either way I’ll gladly take whatever distinctively sad, eccentric musings he decides to put out. Note: "Shade and Honey" was first heard being sung by actor Allesandro Nivola in the good 2002 movie Laurel Canyon. "Ghost in the Sky" originally appeared on the Japanese pressing of It's A Wonderful Life; on the American version of the album, "Morning Hollow" appeared as a hidden track, and the title track appeared as "Maxine" (vinyl only).

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