Artist: Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
Album: Dark Night Of The Soul
Year: 2009
Grade: 3 pretzels
Dark Night Of The Soul, a collaboration album between producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse, Virginian indie band Sparklehorse and a whole slew of guests, made a lot of news earlier this year. For reasons that have still not been made one-hundred percent clear, the label EMI prevented the album from being released. It’s believed that the problem stems from a distribution deal Danger Mouse signed, but no concrete information has actually come to light. All we know is that, instead of grimly accepting their fate or bogging everything down in court procedures, Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse found a novel way to get their music out there. They ended up releasing a well-packaged version of the album, including a blank CD, so that fans could find one of the many leaked versions of the album and burn it onto the CD themselves.
I’m fully in support of what Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are doing. I think it’s refreshing to see artists using the inevitable album leaks as a force of good, instead of freaking out or blogging irately about it all. However, as for the actual music on Dark Night Of The Soul…well, it’s ok. The album is essentially a huge showcase for the wealth of talent Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse have assembled, but many of the songs never really get off the ground or establish their own identity.
There are highlights. “Little Girl”, featuring a wonderfully mumbling Julian Casablancas from the Strokes, is one of the few moments when the music, lyrics and singer’s voice all mesh together to create something that sounds natural. The off-kilter cadences to the words suit Casablancas’ slurring, flat delivery perfectly and the shimmering guitar adds some subtle tension. The opening track, “Revenge”, is another success, featuring the entirety of the Flaming Lips, playing in full-blown, anthemic mode. Danger Mouse’s rich production suits the band’s dreamy vibe perfectly and makes me wonder what an entire album of Lips/Mouse collaborating would sound like.
But too many of the tracks just don’t sound comfortable with themselves. The hacking hard rock of “Angel’s Harp”, featuring Pixies’ Black Francis, goes absolutely nowhere and mostly just sounds like third-string garage rock. The similarly overblown Iggy Pop vehicle, “Pain”, is cursed with a disorienting, unstable chord progression and hamfisted lyrics (“there are good people in this world of bombs, but sadly I am not one”). Then you’ve got a whole chunk of mellow, throwaway tracks during the album’s second half, such as interminable “Everytime I’m With You”. These songs never have anything beyond a simple verse-chorus-bridge setup and the singers don’t even add variations with their voice. While the initial song beginnings are often quite interesting, when they end up stretched over four minutes, they get dull and lifeless.
Thankfully, the album ends with one of its best songs: the crackling, moody title track, featuring none other than David Lynch, who designed the booklet accompanying the blank CD. There are moments of fascinating artistic clarity and collaborative magic sprinkled throughout Dark Night Of The Soul, but they’re simply too few. The guest singers rarely sound comfortable with the lyrics being put in their mouth and the music often sounds labored and weak. I appreciate everything Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are doing in terms of music politics with this album. I only wish the music could have a similar edge and liveliness.
I’m fully in support of what Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are doing. I think it’s refreshing to see artists using the inevitable album leaks as a force of good, instead of freaking out or blogging irately about it all. However, as for the actual music on Dark Night Of The Soul…well, it’s ok. The album is essentially a huge showcase for the wealth of talent Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse have assembled, but many of the songs never really get off the ground or establish their own identity.
There are highlights. “Little Girl”, featuring a wonderfully mumbling Julian Casablancas from the Strokes, is one of the few moments when the music, lyrics and singer’s voice all mesh together to create something that sounds natural. The off-kilter cadences to the words suit Casablancas’ slurring, flat delivery perfectly and the shimmering guitar adds some subtle tension. The opening track, “Revenge”, is another success, featuring the entirety of the Flaming Lips, playing in full-blown, anthemic mode. Danger Mouse’s rich production suits the band’s dreamy vibe perfectly and makes me wonder what an entire album of Lips/Mouse collaborating would sound like.
But too many of the tracks just don’t sound comfortable with themselves. The hacking hard rock of “Angel’s Harp”, featuring Pixies’ Black Francis, goes absolutely nowhere and mostly just sounds like third-string garage rock. The similarly overblown Iggy Pop vehicle, “Pain”, is cursed with a disorienting, unstable chord progression and hamfisted lyrics (“there are good people in this world of bombs, but sadly I am not one”). Then you’ve got a whole chunk of mellow, throwaway tracks during the album’s second half, such as interminable “Everytime I’m With You”. These songs never have anything beyond a simple verse-chorus-bridge setup and the singers don’t even add variations with their voice. While the initial song beginnings are often quite interesting, when they end up stretched over four minutes, they get dull and lifeless.
Thankfully, the album ends with one of its best songs: the crackling, moody title track, featuring none other than David Lynch, who designed the booklet accompanying the blank CD. There are moments of fascinating artistic clarity and collaborative magic sprinkled throughout Dark Night Of The Soul, but they’re simply too few. The guest singers rarely sound comfortable with the lyrics being put in their mouth and the music often sounds labored and weak. I appreciate everything Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are doing in terms of music politics with this album. I only wish the music could have a similar edge and liveliness.
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