Review:

on 2011-03-10 CharlesMartel Said:

Somewhere along the line, the album I listened to and decided I liked it enough to buy it morphed into something completely different by the time Amazon had delivered it to my door. I had not heard much of Sparklehorse before, save for the odd track here and there. Perhaps that is because, with a few exceptions, I am neither a great fan of either slowcore or lo-fi. The former seems to me to be an exercise largely in self-indulgent misery, the sort of self-inflicted victimhood that you come across in a wide variety of losers that you meet in all walks of life from the guy trying to cadge 50p for a cup of tea to the banker whose bonus just isn't big enough to afford that holiday in the Cayman Islands THIS year. The latter has always struck me as being lazy: I may not be a fan of over-produced mainstream or pseudo-mainstream pulp, but I do prefer a sound which doesn't remind me of my own personal hours wasted in a dingy practice studio with a tinny double-cassette recorder with an internal microphone perched in the corner.

But somewhere along the line I did decide to buy this. The difficulty I have with it is largely down to the sound. There is, as anyone who has tried to record anything will know, an effect you get when the microphone is on an unstable surface and begins to vibrate when certain frequencies get played. It seems that Sparklehorse have taken that effect and made it a standard feature of almost all the songs on this album. Particularly annoying is "Dog Door" in this regard for it feels as if this has been purposely constructed to prove that sound which would remind granny of those old 78's she used to listen to on her father's old gramophone.

Now I know it takes some skill to produce these effects deliberately, but I am at something of a loss to relate to it. Sparklehorse's leading light/creator is Mark Linkous, and to his credit he has pulled in a fine set of artists to collaborate with him on this, ranging from PJ Harvey to Tom Waits. This is no flash in the pan by some clever sod with an arrogance to match his impertinence, this is a well-crafted plan which has gained the support of some notable people who know what they are talking about. On that basis alone, you cannot simply write this off as the product of the fevered imagination of some self-obsessed freak.

And yet, the lyrical themes do not give you any confidence that this is, in fact, not as previously dismissed given the personal merit of the collaborators. I know the band has the name horse in it, but too many songs with equine subjects - "Little Fat Baby", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Apple Bed" and "Sea of Teeth", a strangely titled song which is capable of producing a lyric which is either exquisite in is subliminity or as daft as a brush -

"Will my pony recognise my voice in Hell?
Will he still be blind
Or do they go by sense of smell?"

References to horses, ponies, mules permeate this album. As far as I can tell the only think lacking is a reference to a zebra.

By the time I finished the first listen of "It's a Wonderful Life" I was confused as hell. I have to say that feeling has not improved much since. I know there is something here, but I am not sure that, when I find it, I will find it all that appealing to me. (Plus there is a hidden track at the end and I HATE hidden tracks - if it is good enough to be on the album it is good enough to be listed and have a name: if it is not good enough, leave it off!!). Okay, I agree that it has its moments. I find "Piano Fire" to be something which I can listen to with ease, something which does not cause me to think about where this is all coming from. But on the whole, I am disappointed: disappointed with this because it does not deliver and/or disappointed with myself for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I feel that I am either failing to appreciate something here which I ought to or disappointed because I feel I am looking too hard for something which isn't really there at all.

So the question I leave you with is this - an album by a band which references horse, where the songs reference horses and many other equine creatures: am I being an ass?
Rating: 5/10

on 2008-05-04 Macavennie Said:

An album that i keep coming back to. stunning.
Saw them play this live at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, a truly memorable night.
Rating: 8/10