Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go

The Letting Go, released in 2006 is perhaps the lushest album in Will Oldham's career.  Recorded in Iceland, it features sweeping melodies and sumptuous strings, not something you'd usually associate with him.  The strings that open the album on Love Comes To Me threaten to be overpowering on what is (on the surface) a relatively 'sweet' song, but Dawn McCarthy's high-pitched backing vocals and Emmett Kelly's guitar keep things on an even keel.  Indeed Kelly's guitar is what really lifts the following track Strange Form of Life from being just another run-of-the-mill Bonnie Prince Billy track, with some really fine, clean guitar licks.  Wai appears to be a return to the austere folk of Master and Everyone.

The centrepiece is undoubtedly the five and a half minute Cursed Sleep, with a guitar figure and string arrangement that is highly evocative of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter.  It's definitely the track on the album that showcases Nico Muhly's string arrangements to the greatest effect, but it's not a particularly relaxed track, more an exercise in building tension.  No Bad News is more stately folk, with gently plucked guitars, muted drums and a low undercurrent of strings.  After this the album does a complete about turn with Cold & Wet, a slice of throwaway blues.  Later into the album, almost title track Then The Letting Go is a highlight, chiefly due to McCarthy's exquisite, almost 'Call of the Wild' backing vocals and wintry, picked guitars and lyrics.  God's Small Song, is more impressionistic, a bit like something label-mate Bill Callahan might do in his looser moments.

A fairly atypical Bonnie Prince Billy album, but a pretty strong one.

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