The Marquis de Tren and Bonny Billy - Get on Jolly
(Palace)
Key:
Bonny Billy (a.k.a. Bonnie "Prince" Billy) = Will Oldham (of the Palace variations)
The Marquis de Tren = Mick Turner (of the Dirty Three).
Given the involvement of such heavyweights in this little project (six songs, 22 minutes),
one's hopes may rise beyond the point of sustainability. The purpose of this review is: don't
get your hopes up.
For those who are familiar with the previous work of the involved parties, the overall tone
is appropriately melancholy and maudlin. The pace is slow. The atmosphere is heavy.
However, the melodies are underdeveloped and abstract. The songs wander along like a
drunk in love, who knows not wither his lover lie. The various overdubbed guitars on
"25" (the songs are only numbered, not named) sound like an orchestra tuning up, rather
than any musician playing a song. The instruments on "2/15," guitar, bass, accordion,
and some backwards sounds, have no appearance of being played on the same song, but
seem randomly assembled. Only the last two tracks, "64" and "66" rise to the level of a
focused, coherent tune (maybe it's the presence of drums on those tracks, that keep
them in line).
Oldham's voice is underused, relegated to monotone inflections and unmelodic
phrasings. Mick Turner's guitar work is merely a lesser variation on the Dirty Three
formula: where the Dirty Three's musical wandering has an ultimate destination in an
emotional climax, here it has the feel of lazily improvisation to fill out the track.
Granted, taken overall, the record is not without its own odd charm. For instance, the
romanticism of the Dirty Three is present, though to a lesser extent. Also, the off-the-cuff
nature of the record gives it a spontaneous feeling. However, given the strength of what
each of these musicians has previously done, Get on Jolly can only be a
disappointment.
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