Bonnie “Prince” Billie
Lie Down in the Light
(DRAG CITY)
Will Oldham’s music is always inspired. It’s reassuring to see that even after 34 releases—21 EPs and 13 full lengths—he can still unravel the human psyche with an honesty few dare approach. Aside from a superb touch with melody, it’s unfiltered candour that makes his writing so alluring and treasured. While Oldham’s most successful albums (I See a Darkness and Master and Everyone) were bleak, dealing with emotional loss, adultery (usually on his part) and the idea that we travel this world alone, there is always a spark of hopefulness. For Lie Down in the Light, his 14th full length (ninth as Bonnie “Prince” Billy), hope and love of the world has become a guiding light. “I wouldn’t trade my life/ for someone’s millions,” he sings to a recently departed loved one in “Missing One,” tenderly adding, “I know I will continue to try to please you…even to try to be you.” There is the joyous duet “So Everyone,” on which Oldham almost sounds giddy: “Now I want the world to see…she loves me.” Perhaps his change in mood is most evident on the opener “Easy Does It,” an almost-Gram Parsons-ish country number, where after name-checking the things and people he loves he concludes, “And that’s all there needs to be.” While his albums are always a treat to behold, it is hard to remember when Oldham has sounded so content and at peace in his world.
—Dave Hayden
categories: Coast pick
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2008.