In a metaphorical sense, the dark night of the soul is used to describe the phase in a person’s spiritual life that is marred by seclusion and misery. Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) and Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) illustrate that design impressively on the “official” release of their collaborative album Dark Night of the Soul.
It seems like a no brainer that this record would be a must-have on any music lover’s list. It features the duo teaming up with many talented artists both young and old. There are songs including the likes of Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas, Suzanne Vega, Jason Lytle, Black Francis, the late Vic Chesnutt, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, the Flaming Lips and James Mercer of the Shins. Even with this “All Star” line-up, Burton’s legal dispute with the record label EMI prohibited the album from being released a year ago. Instead, Burton financed the release himself, offering fans a book of pictures by David Lynch and a blank CD-R that read “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.” DNOTS has been leaked for a little over a year…
Both head honchos on the project supply an equal amount of their musical tastes into the collection. Linkous, who surprised the music world by committing suicide in March, polished the dark themes he is known for all over Burton’s knack for combining vintage alternative rock with psychadelia.
The songs are not songs. They are ballads. The voices of the featured give each song a character and float through notables like “Every Time I’m With You” (Every time I’m with you/ I am drunk/ and you are too/ well what the hell/ else are we/ supposed to do?) and “Revenge.”
The lyrics are about sadness, loneliness, desolation and anger or sometimes encompassing it all as in the Iggy Pop tune “Pain.” “Jaykub” is a ballad featuring Jason Lytle about a short, ugly, and poor man who clings to the visions he has of himself in his head as a handsome, tall and rich member of society. It’s reminiscent of many of the lullabies ace storyteller Ben Gibbard of Death Cab has sung over the years.
Linkous and Burton really dipped their feet in this one. Not just by producing but by assisting in the mixing and the engineering as well. Burton has always considered his role in his work as an auteur or a director of sorts; the one who has complete control and is the sole possessor of the artistic direction. That philosophy rubbed off well on Linkous as his name is right next to Burtons on perhaps every credit given in the book.
Musically, DNOTS is very simple and laid back. Burton keeps the percussion pretty technical while Linkous coasts through each song utilizing each fret on the guitar, it seems. All the songs have a slow tempo but it works awesomely with the theme of the album. It’s almost as if the album represents a dark period in an artist’s career and the music is embracing the gloom, not wanting to escape. Not much showmanship on this album, it is a very modest, very indie piece of work. “Little Girl,” is the only track with a Linkous solo. He is hard at work on the guitar with lots of single string plucking and multi-string strumming interchanging on the Julian Casablancas song.
It seems the album is a frightening pre-cursor to Linkous’ tragic death just months before its release, or vice versa. His heart and soul could be felt throughout record. The man who was Sparklehorse always kept a low profile but his presence on DNOTS is definetely high profile. It would have attracted attention to him as a musician; perhaps mainstream attention. Attention that in an indie realm is unheard off. The fact that he is gone and that he doesn’t have to absorb the admiration and respect this album will bring him is something he would want.
Buy the album at our record store on Amazon
Might we recommend some previous shows & blogs you might totally digg:
- The Enter The Shell Show – Eddie Cohn Live
- The Enter The Shell Show – Savvy Live
- Sunday’s Blessing – Danger Mouse
- Free Music Download –Oh Land – “Sun of a Gun” [Yuksek Remix]
- Free Music Download – Captain Cryptic – “Mix Tape”