Ignoring the obvious pretensions of adopting a different pseudonym every time he feels so much a change of wind direction in his underpants, the fresh Prince of hot air augments his customary spit and sawdust melancholy with the sweetest of fiddles, glockenspiels and pedal steels for a handful of belly laughs, camp-fire choruses and high and lonesome romance courtesy of new album, ‘Beware’. Whilst no less gritty and honest than previous efforts, Will Oldham embraces a richer and broader musical context for songs about trouble, endurance and furrowing your own noble path in a hostile and lonely world. Part gospel, part punk, part prince and part pauper songs like ‘My Life’s Work’ drag the rustiest of guitars against the prettiest of words and the lushest of brass and fiddle arrangements, whilst the frisky, chucklesome, ‘You Don’t Love Me’ provides a cajun ragtime vibe in the most playful of New Orleans traditions: hand claps, woozy fiddles, jiggling creole percussion, trumpets – they’re all jostling around in there.
However jagged the departures and however lusty the fun, it’s still very much a country record, as frail as a whisper and as tough as a bag of nails. Real men don’t just eat quiche they also reveal the deepest of roots.
Beware: a flailing, big-hearted triumph.
Suggested downloads:
’I Don’t Belong To Anyone’ ~ Mandolins give way to the prettiest of pedal-steel lullabies. Storms erupt from nowhere but peace prevails. Quietly courageous and very, very lovely indeed.
‘Beware Your Only Friend’ ~ Boozy fiddles rock the Prince’s boat and a lusty bevy of angels join in on the chorus.
‘BEWARE’ BY BONNIE PRINCE BILLY RELEASED 16TH MARCH 2009