I am not one who can sit down and listen to a record that is just acoustic guitar and vocals. Call me shallow but, playing in Symphony Orchestras and the such has made me a sucker for instrumentation. The closest I come to such minimalistic music is Songs: Ohia's Didn't It Rain and some of the older Against Me! stuff.
Saying that, I had a hard time sitting still during this record, and I don't mean I was dancing. The first song, "The Way" was a nice song. I sat there and I must say I enjoyed it. "Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise" played on and I found myself going for a soda. The female vocals definately didn't do it for me in this song either. The title track I enjoyed as well. Maybe because it's the shortest track on the record. Once "Wolf Among Wolves" started, I was looking for something else to occupy my time. This time I turned to Yahoo! Canasta. Hoping that this mellow cd would be nice background music to an otherwise calming game, I created a table and on came an opponent. Before I knew it, she had two canastas, went out, and I found myself screaming and not very calmed. I needed something else to listen to.
This record proved several points possibly:
1. Either I have ADD or this record just isn't anything to be excited over.
2. Acoustic guitar with female and male vocals is just a little too country for me.
3. Yahoo! Canasta can be quite the demanding and emotional game. Take caution.
Four years ago to the present, record players everywhere have played the last note of "Raining in Darling," the final song on Will Oldham's Bonnie "Prince" Billy record, I See a Darkness. As his record burped and scratched to its end, newly-anointed or long-time fans of Will Oldham have eagerly awaited his return which would once again, hopefully, take us on a morbid and intimate journey to places as close as our souls and as remote as the heavens themselves. If I have not made it obvious enough, poor Will has a lot to live up to with this release following what is in this writer's opinion, among some of the greatest records of all time.
The record starts off innocently enough, unfortunately not capturing the same brilliant opening that his Darkness counterpart, "A Minor Place" did. As intimate, charming, and confessional as the song, "The Way," is, it is unfortunate that nothing in it compares to profound lyrics from Darkness's opening track, the most prominent example being "as we do what we do fine/so victorious, so benign." Every track is tolerable and even good, but one song will test your nerve and patience. I'm referring to the second track, "Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?" Female singer Marty Slayton's contributions to this track remind me of how much I dislike the part in The Last Waltz where Emmylou Harris duets with The Band. Perhaps to some folks, the country "feel" that this song provides, coupled with the harmonizing between both sexes will prove pleasant, but for me and perhaps other people who don't find country nearly as aesthetically pleasing, it will prove almost embarrassing to listen to.
Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this record is no song comes even close to reclaiming the glory of the title track from his previous record. In fact, much of this record shows off his Christian sufferer angle with much more explicit but simple detail than its predecessor. Granted, Will
s Christianity and relationship with God is an important theme in Darkness, where he utters such lines as "tomorrow God will make me good/If I allow her to/she would." However, his religious roots are portrayed in a much more simplistic, and naturally, much less creative and profound manner.
This is a good and perhaps even great record, but when it's released after the advent of a masterpiece like Darkness, it doesn't seem nearly as impressive.
