This next album was delayed
because it was one of those records that had to seep slowly into my bones over
repeat listens. Like a well-marinated steak, it was worth the wait.
Disc 887 is….Greatest Palace Music
Artist: Bonnie
Prince Billy
Year of Release: 2004 but featuring
songs originally recorded 1993-1997
What’s up with the Cover? And then the Crayon Giant barfed
on the mountain, and there were many deaths. I’m not saying I hate this cover, but the best part is the font.
How I Came To Know It: A few years back my friend Josh
introduced me to the song “West Palm
Beach” while teaching me guitar. I never got very good at playing that
song, but I liked it, and I also knew about the Johnny Cash cover of Bonnie
Prince Billy’s “I See A Darkness” so
I sought out more of his stuff.
How It Stacks Up: I have five Bonnie Prince Billy albums
including this one. I’m not sure I should stack this one up, though. On the one
hand it is all music from earlier albums in his career, and so represents a
“best of” (which don’t get ranked). On the other hand, the recordings are quite
different from the original, and so you could argue it is an original record.
However, Gordon Lightfoot re-recorded songs for his two “Gord’s Gold” albums
and I didn’t rank them, so I’m going to stick with that decision. No stacking
for a compilation album, even if you reimagine the songs.
Ratings: “Best Of” albums don’t get a
rating, but I did like this record a lot.
When I first
delved into the early music of Bonnie Prince Billy (aka Will Oldham) it was
under his other pseudonym of Palace Brothers. At the time I was disappointed. My
previously limited exposure to Billy was positive (see above) but despite this,
the work of the Palace Brothers fell flat. I could tell the songs were
objectively good, but they didn't inspire me. I dabbled briefly before moving on to his later
work, nary a purchase made.
Fortunately
what I moved on to was his rerecorded versions of some of those early songs on “Greatest
Palace Music.” All those songs that went in one ear and out the other became
fascinating and layered works of beauty with their new treatment and
production. Presentation matters.
In this
case that presentation is a folksy country/folk crossover, heavy on piano,
moderate on the guitar and flourishes of horn where they are called for and
(for the most part) omitted when they’re not.
Early on
the album feels very much like a greatest hits record, with the first five
tracks the best five on the album.
The opening
track, “New Partner” is a brave choice
for an opening, with its slow tempo, and regret-filled piano. Oldham’s chorus
calls to his new partner, but the song is about a lost love, not the new one. The
song’s final stanza captures the awkwardness of it all with a poetic grace that
permeates the entire album:
“Now the sun's fading faster,
we're ready to go
There's a skirt in the bedroom
that's pleasantly low
And the loons on the moor, the
fish in the flow
And my friends, my friends still
will whisper hello
We all know what we know, it's a
hard swath to mow
When you think like a hermit you
forget what you know”
Oldham’s
high and deeply evocative voice is perfectly matched to this particular brand
of cerebral heartache. He is the equal of other creepy but delightfully
self-examined poets like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave.
The second
song, “Ohio River Boat Song” is what
I would’ve gone with to open the record; a traditional country swing in it that
could be a hit in Nashville if it weren’t so damned thoughtful. Too easy a
choice for the Bonnie Prince, I suppose.
The best
song on the record is “Gulf Shores”
which has such a sublime piano piece holding it up. Oldham is the master of
taking a fairly straightforward chord progression and throwing in odd notes that
seem momentarily out of place, but then artfully resolve. Jazz wishes it could
be this creative and yet still enjoyable to listen to. Lyrically, I can’t think
of a song that evokes deeper emotion and backstory which is ostensibly about
just sitting on the beach.
On “You Will Miss Me When I Burn” Oldham
sings the sad refrain “when you have no
one/no one can hurt you” as the piano matches his resigned and beautifully
lonely vocal delivery. “The Brute Choir”
rounds out the fab five start, returning to powerful Cohen-esque moment with piano
that soars triumphantly even as Oldham’s sweet and high vocals beg for an end
to it all.
Unfortunately,
the album is a tad long at 58 minutes, and the latter two-thirds of the record don’t
hold up the same energy as its start. Maybe I’m just emotionally exhausted by
the time I’m 20 minutes in, but I think it is hard to match those first few
songs.
Nothing
is terrible, but there were disappointments. “I Send My Love to You” features a silly sound effect of a duck quacking,
and “No More Workhorse Blues” gets emotionally
powerful, but it waits too long to do so.
“Agnes, Queen of Sorrows” is a strong duet
with Marty Slayton about a couple with a relationship on the rocks. It features
the great refrain of “If you wait another
day/I will wait another day.” Doesn’t sound like much, but it is the straw
these two hold onto. In the hands of master songwriter Oldham that straw becomes
a whole world.
The
album ends with “I Am A Cinematographer”
which feels a bit hokey, and isn’t helped by five minutes of dead air tagged
onto the end of the record. Please stop doing this people. It might feel like
artistic expression to you but it amounts to little more than a prank on your
listeners.
Like
most Bonnie Prince Billy records, “Greatest Palace Music” takes time and
patience to fully understand, but the time spent will be worth it in the end.
Few artists have Will Oldham’s talent for painting a scene with the art of the
word, and then also knowing just what tune to bring that imagery to life.
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