Record Review, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Beware

Posted on 1st Apr 09 by Adam Lacey | 1

Artist: Bonnie "Prince" BillyAuthor: Adam Lacey I"m probably not the best choice of writer to do a Bonnie Prince Billy album review. I adore Will Oldham. I could listen to him sing for days" from his early croaky efforts as Palace Music/Palace Brothers" to his sparse" self"analysing I See A Darkness period to his more [...]

Artist: Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Author: Adam Lacey

I"m probably not the best choice of writer to do a Bonnie Prince Billy album review. I adore Will Oldham. I could listen to him sing for days" from his early croaky efforts as Palace Music/Palace Brothers" to his sparse" self"analysing I See A Darkness period to his more country"tinged Lie Down In The Light.

I suspect the foundations of this lie in the love of country music my parents have always harboured. They saw Johnny Cash in Dublin"s Carlton in 1974 and Don Williams in 1978" the latter while my mother was pregnant with me. They went to the Nashville rodeo in "76 at the National Stadium and have seen Crystal Gale support Kenny Rogers in their 80s hey"day. As I got older" through my punk phase and into grunge" my father"s tastes seemed to be more in tune with what I would most enjoy from their country collection:Merle Haggard" Willie Nelson" Cash" Jennings" Kristofferson. Yet I still enjoy the ground"breaking lyricism of Loretta Lynn and even the jaunty pomp of Marty Robbins "the latter when I"m drunk at Christmas."

And so to Mr. Oldham " he straddles much of my musical tastes perfectly. He seems to have bloomed from an alternative music background" he is friends with Slint "he took the cover photo on Slint"s masterful Spiderland album" and Bill Callahan" is referenced as a legend by many in the alternative scene and cites Leonard Cohen as one of his musical heroes "two others being Merle Haggard and R. Kelly". He has not been one to waste time churning out the same material year after year and his work is as prolific as it is varied" with a plethora of guest appearances" EPs and albums seeming to flow out of his hairy fiss"g every couple of months. On top of this" he has found time to be a bit"part film actor appearing in the wonderful Old Joy" Junebug and" recently" Wendy and Lucy.

Beware has become known as Oldham"s "big" album. He has said he will tour" promote" do a few interviews" allow some advertisements and has even done a video for I Am Goodbye. Lyrically" Oldham at times lives up to the ominous album title as he pines for lost lust in You Don"t Love Me and abandoned lovers on a glorious Heart"s Arms but at the same time he croaks on about his tummy jiggling and throws in a few surprising instruments such as flutes" mandolins" pedal"steel guitar" saxophone" accordion and trumpet . It"s a long way from Master And Everyone we have come.

While The Letting Go was a beautiful" haunting album "I"m still not sure that the distancing vocals of Dawn McCarthy were the right choice for that album but that"s for another article" and Lie Down In The Light was upbeat by his standards" on Beware he seems to have given care to instrumentally boost every song but never to an overpowering degree. The melancholy is never too soul"destroying" the up tempo country is never comically jaunty and the melodies are dazzlingly immediate" even by his standards. Most of the album is infused with a joyousness and a playful abandon while lyrically it shifts from self"deprecation to carefree solipsism with ease. Songs are exquisitely augmented by the skills of Jennifer Hutt" Emmett Kelly" Dee Alexander" Nicole Mitchell and Greg Leisz" yet everyone is under the eccentric meandering spell of the Bonnie Prince" never overshadowing his deliberate playfulness" experimentation or personality. While some may denounce Beware as too country or not sparse enough" the glory of Bonnie Prince Billy is that he will be back in no time with something that will divide his fans once again. In a live setting" he apparently twists the songs of Beware into a more stripped"down format and so those who may not rate this album can look forward to catching the tour. And as an artist Oldham will ignore all and plough on with whatever he feels like doing" jiggling tummy and all. Recommended.