Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) committed suicide in March. Linkous’s last work is this collaboration with (and initiated by) Danger Mouse. Several guest vocalists appear. One is Vic Chesnutt, who took his own life last December. “Grim Augury” is the retelling of a “horrible dream” set to a waltz. Nina Persson partnered with Linkous on the first A Camp album. You can hear her well on background vocals for “Daddy’s Gone,” with its refrain: “I woke up and all my yesterdays are gone.” That raises an important question, the kind often ignored by media: Does suicide result from an inability to see the sum total of one’s past acts and accomplishments as positive more than it does from a despair for, a negative view of, the future? Before suicide is an act to be prevented, it’s a thought possessed by a mind that needs engagement.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.