Master and Everyone

by

Bonnie "Prince" Billy

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I recently pulled out my old copy of "There's No One What Will Take Care of You" and gave it a listen. That album is still outstanding but what's truly incredible is how much Will Oldham has evolved over just the last eight or nine years. Ever since first taking on the Bonnie Prince title a few years back he has reached a new plateau in his song writing. Where "I See A Darkness" was bleak and frightened and "Ease Down The Road" was drunken and melancholic, "Master and Everyone" is much more subtle album. It is more endearing than "Ease Down The Road" and at the same time more devestating than "I See A Darkness." It is a collection of some of the most resonant and profound songs I have heard in the last... well, ever. The writing and presentation work hand in hand to bring out the emotions this album inspires. At once a work of great beauty and great sadness, I can say without reservation that this album is my favorite of all Oldham's releases, and I've heard almost every last thing he's done. Only a talent like Oldham could make a line like "It's a hard life for a man with no wife" ring with deep resonancy and continue to haunt with a transcendant melancholy. Have you figured it out yet? I LIKE THIS ALBUM!!

Admittedly this album starts off beautifully, but it's the same thing all the way through. It's far too sedate for its own good. Oldham is usually a superb lyricist, but the lyrics aren't printed this time, and it's easy to understand why: there is very little to them. It's like he couldn't be bothered sitting down and spending a few hours crafting some, just scrawled a few lines down when he had the time. Not many of these songs have definition to them, and I cannot remember any of them as I write this. There is an unfortunate trend in contemporary music to concentrate on the sound of an album, and forget to actually write real songs. Until now, Will Oldham was one of the few to actually write strong songs, as the first Bonnie Prince Billy album showed. This feels like a privately released Will Oldham album. It doesn't feel like a Bonnie Prince Billy album. The second Billy album had its flaws, but there were still great songs on it. Are there really any songs here whose melodies are going to circle any listener's head as he walks down the street? Only the fanatical listener, perhaps. This album may be very sweet in its way, but Oldham has always mingled sweetness with harshness, and that mixture is completely absent here. It is surely the harshness that accentuates any sweetness. It's hard to believe that this album was written by the same guy who wrote 'Werner's Last Blues To Blokbuster' and 'Death To Everyone'. Listening to this it's clear that someone needs to kick Will up the backside for his own good. This is akin to easy listening. You could play this in an elevator, and no one's eyebrows would be raised. Haven't we had enough of really quiet albums now? Albums to fall asleep to? Isn't it time for some edge and some bite to new music? Considering we are living in terrifyingly bleak times? Perhaps everyone just wants to drift off to sleep, and avoid the world completely. The music on this album is as inconsequential as it is possible to imagine. Maybe that's the idea. But it's the wrong idea.