Dark Night of the Soul

by

Sparklehorse, Danger Mouse and David Lynch

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Let us all pause for a moment, and bow our heads for a brilliant musician. Last March, a deeply depressed Mark Linkous aka Sparklehorse committed suicide.

But before he passed away, Linkous finished one last collaboration with Danger Mouse, appropriately entitled "Dark Night of the Soul." Lots of spacefuzz rock'n'roll and colorful psychedelic pop, with countless guest singers/musicians/composers adding their own unique stylings to the music. And sadly, you can hear some foreshading of Linkous' loss in there.

Every song has guest vocalists who also helped produce and composing their songs. It begins with the warm, liquid psychedelica of "Revenge," in which Wayne Coyne croons sadly, "In my mind/I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart/I just didn't understand/The ricochet is the second part..."

Then it switches to the shimmering, glitchy "Just War" with Gruff Rhys, and the fluttering folk-rock of "Jaykub" with Jason Lytle. After those through songs, there's a brief interlude of pure rock'n'roll -- Julian Casablancas slurs through the lean "Little Girl," Black Francis drawls through the half-baked"Angel's Harp," and Iggy Pop... well, he burns through a fiery expanse of dark hard-rock. What else?

Then things sink back into the spacefuzz again, with James Mercer, Jason Lytle, Vic Chestnutt, David Lynch, Suzanne Vega and Nina Persson all contributing. There's the ethereal electronic "Star Eyes (I Can Catch It)," the twinkly chaotic "Insane Lullaby," the bluesy "Daddy's Gone" and "The Man Who Played God," the melancholy folkpop of "Everytime I'm With You," and with bluesy streamers of synth and mats of grimy guitar in the last two songs.

The biggest problem with "Dark Night of the Soul" is that it sounds like too many different artists -- it often sounds more like a compilation of these various people than a unified album. That said, the only song I didn't like was "Angel's Harps," which just sounded half-baked. The rest of the songs are melancholy, tinged with hopelessness and sadness.

The softer songs are full of different instrumentations -- spacey synth that twinkles, shimmers and glitches, xylophones, soft strings, fuzzy guitars and murmuring vocals. The harder, rockier songs have traces of those things, but they rely more on driving guitar and raw blasts of bass -- a particular highlight is Iggy Pop's song, which starts off as a simple hard-rock song, but blossoms with streams of glittering synth and blooming whorls of guitar.

The guest vocalists also do brilliant jobs -- Wayne Coyne, Jason Lytle and Jason Mercer are particular highlights, but all of them are expertly woven into their music. And the lyrics are simply beautiful -- lots of striking imagery ("But dreams float up/from fishers in the flood"), hopelessness ("The last survivor crawling through the dust/There is just war/A contribution till humankind/Turns to rust") and general sadness ("I woke up and all my yesterdays were gone").

Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse crafted a beautiful, saddening collection of songs that turned out to be Linkous' last work -- I wasn't crazy about Black Francis' song, but all the rest are lovely.

Well, at least this record is officially out now. I was excited by the concept last year and interested to hear collaborations with some of the artists here. However several of my least favorite male vocalists around turn up to start the record, which is a let down... in fact I don't like most of the male vocalists picked here. I'd have much preferred Mark Linkous' voice on these tracks. I liked Mark's voice. It would have made these songs a bit more interesting.

My favorite track here is the one with Suzanne Vega ("The Man Who Played God"). I like that song and her selection as vocalist really works well. But this is the only track on here that I listen to in rotation with my favorites from all the previous Sparklehorse records. It's also the only song where the music really sounds like it is Sparklehorse to me.

Most of the rest of the record doesn't hold up for me. I like aspects of Julian Casablancas' entry and I like his work, but the song also drags along after a while. Frank Black Francis' track is interesting, though not something that would be a highlight. And well, Iggy Pop's track mostly seems like a bad joke here. Mostly these are nowhere near Mark's best songs. Furthermore the production is much too light usually. Danger Mouse's work with Mark on Dreamt for Light Years... turned out some brilliant stuff. It seemed like a real winning collaboration. But these songs don't reach that level.

It's too bad there won't be another one, though.