Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life
(Capitol)
Mark Linkous - a.k.a. Mr. Sparklehorse - began his career with Vivadixiesubmarine-transmissionplot, an album that was as much crushing defeat as it was transcendental excellence. It never really strayed from its course of country-tinged American Gothic rock, with songs like "Homecoming Queen" and "Heart of Darkness" evoking images of loss, defeat, and death. There were some abysmal moments, as well, like the uninspired "Gasoline Horseys" and the pointless wankery of "850 Double Pumper Holley." Besides the failures, it was great... but it hinted at so much more. These promises were hardly fulfilled with the release of Chords I've Known, a miniscule EP that featured five tracks and ran a meager ten minutes. But even then, there was the lo-fi/hi-fi bliss and demented songwriting that would come to fruition later on in Mark's career.
Jump ahead four years(!), the tragedy of overdosing on antidepressants, being medically dead for three minutes, and then having to be confined in a wheelchair for a three month period. This prompted the brilliant and complex Good Morning Spider, an album which fulfilled many of the promises made on Vivadixie. However, Spider never kept a constant pace. It jumped from the fuzzed out rage of "Pig," the blistering opener, to the desperate and haunting "Saint Mary's," to the lush, yearning pop of "Sunshine" and "Hundreds of Sparrows". There were enough moments of pure, unfettered genius on that album to make it a classic, but the sequencing, lack of direction (except for the overall themes of loss), and somewhat grating filler material prevented it from getting the recognition it deserved. Something that I've come to tell friends who ask (and almost none do), is that, had he cut four or five tracks, Linkous could have easily had one of the best records of the 1990s. As it stood, Good Morning Spider was a beautiful, complex, and mysterious release that delved into the sorrows and joys of recovering after nearly dying. I loved it and still do.
Taking a step back in early 2000, Mark decided to release the Distorted Ghost EP, a collection of covers, live recordings, and outtakes that had nowhere else to go. Was it good? Not really, and, as fans had come to expect a lot from the Sparklehorse name, it was pretty disappointing. Still, when I heard that there was a new album coming out, the drooling began. On a recent trip to New York, I was sifting through the used bins at Other Music. Along with copies of Cat Power's Moon Pix and the Dirty Three's Horse Stories, guess what I found? An advance promotional copy of It's a Wonderful Life. How about that? A week before it was released, and I had it. I made my purchase, and when I got back to the hotel I was staying at that night, I forgot about the Cat Power and Dirty Three. I immediately went to the Sparklehorse. Let me tell you: this is the best release of the year, so far, and I can't see much comparing to it.
The album starts out with the warmly fuzzy waltz of the titled track, which is simply guitar, light percussion, strings, and Mark singing. The lyric is much like that of "Homecoming Queen" off of Vivadixie, with Mark singing: "I am the only one/can ride that horse/under/I'm full of bees who died at sea," before the strings come in with the chorus like a tide. The song is somber and beautiful. While partially ironic, I think the gloominess of the lyrics is as much a parody of his own style as it is serious. Mark knows the power of subtly affecting lyricism and takes the American Gothic imagery that pervades his music to an extreme. The result is fantastic.
The second track is fantastic also, and one of the obvious highlights of the album, the joyfully wistful (or wistfully joyful?) "Gold Day". This track could easily be a hit on any radio station. It's instantly accessible but complex enough to warrant hundreds of repeated listens. The lyrics are cryptic in places, but very straightforward. After a tasty organ bridge, Mark sings the plaintive chorus: "Keep all your crows away/hold skinny wolves at bay/in silver piles of smiles/may all your days be gold, my child." The production on the track is different than the opener, with clean, distinguishable parts and a warm tone that make it all the better. The next song brings the fuzz back in, to great effect. "Piano Fire", on which Polly Jean Harvey guests, is a guitar, drum, and dual vocal fuzzfest, with added piano and synthesizer embellishment near the end. The Microphones would have you believe that they have the technique down pat, but Linkous blows them out of the water with this song.
The somber mood is realized again on tracks four and five, "Sea of Teeth" and "Apple Bed," the latter of which is another standout. "Sea of Teeth," while good, isn't a particular highlight. It uses wordplay and outer space imagery to outstanding result, and the plodding drum and piano backing make it a good, late-night slowburn. Think of Hayden's "Between Us to Hold" or The Black Heart Procession's "The War is Over" as a reference point, only done with a more profound execution and without the dirge-like qualities the latter utilizes. "Apple Bed", with it's male/female chorus of "please/doctor, please" stands as a sad, monumental request for some unknown answer. The slowly building use of live and electronic percussion, bridged with Jane Scarpantoni's baroque cello, is used to devastating results. At the end of the song, cello, guitar, drums, and electronic noodling coalesce into a raging--yet subdued--outro. Before you know it, the song is over, and the fuzz is back.
Which brings us to the album's best song, in my opinion. "King of Nails", while at first sounding like a fuzzier classic rock number, turns into an incredible mixture of genres (country, noise rock, and lo-fi) after repeated listening. The urgently delivered lyrics, mixed with the roaring fuzz and pounding drums, makes it easily the most "rocking" song on It's a Wonderful Life, especially during the last verse. Mark sings in a deadpan monotone with Sophie Michelitsiano's strained vocals in the background. "I drink my liquor from the bone/of a child who smelled like sun/and spoke in tongues;/the toothless kiss of skeletons/and summer hail/I'm the king of nails." Cryptic? Sure. But nonetheless extremely moving, especially since after the final chorus, the static and distortion are piled on, building to a frenzied climax before... stopping. In short, probably the best track on It's a Wonderful Life.
"Eyepennies", a melancholic elegy, is again based on the piano-drums-voice-and-sparse-guitar archetype of many of the other tracks. It's good, but definitely not a highlight. The next track is probably one of the strangest, though. Likeminded purveyor of Gothic country, Tom Waits, guests on it, and actually co-wrote the song. It's creepy, with dual shrieky-and-growling vocals, minor chords, and hard to understand lyrics (except for the repeated chorus: "She caught me coming through the dog door" and the bizarre coda "Pitchfork!/Crowbar!/Claw hammer!/Hot tar!"). Electronics are used here more than on any other track, as well as varied percussion--including, according to the liner notes, "metal things." I'll let you interpret that how you may, since I've got no fucking clue what kind of metal things he means.
I could go on and on about the greatness of this album. I love it so much that I actually bought another copy of it, so as to have the excellent bonus track "Devil's New" and the full artwork. I gave the other one to my friend Ryan, who I've since hooked on Sparklehorse. I can't say enough about this album. Screw indie cred, I don't care if this is on a major label. No one should. From the reminiscence-mixed-with-dark-fantasy of the radiant "More Yellow Birds," to the tape manipulation in "Devil's New," to the absolutely stellar hidden track (which has no reason to be hidden, as it is just as good--if not better--than anything on the actual album), this is a masterpiece. There are a few standards that have to be met for an album to reach perfection: no sonic misfires, proper tracking, and cohesiveness. It's a Wonderful Life has all of these in excess. Brilliant.
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