Bonnie 'Prince' Billy self-titled s/t 2013 LP NEW fast shipping

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69

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

self-titled

Prince Records PR? 2013 12" 33rpm (USA)

There’s a lot of self happening on the ninth proper Bonnie "Prince" Billy album. Will Oldham played everything himself, recorded it himself, released it himself, and even distributed it himself by hand to record stores. Most significantly, the music on Bonnie "Prince" Billy exudes an individual perspective—nearly every song is written in the first person, and Oldham’s spare acoustic guitar, breathy vocals, and close-up production form a contemplative inner monologue.

There’s one more bit of self about Bonnie “Prince” Billy that’s important: the fact that Oldham decided to make it self-titled. The last time he went that route was on 1994’s Palace Brothers (later re-titled Days in the Wake). That was also the last time he made a full-length album with, for the most part, just his voice and acoustic guitar. The result was one of the finest records in his oeuvre, a suite of intimate sketches studded with now-classics like “Pushkin” and “I Am A Cinematographer". He must’ve thought of that album while making this one, and when judged against its predecessor Bonnie "Prince" Billy measures up quite well.

That’s due partially to how perfectly the solo acoustic format fits Oldham’s melding of vocals and lyrics. He weaves them together so tightly that it’s hard to tell singer from song, and that’s clearest when it’s just him and a guitar. His voice shakes, stretches and cracks around notes, approaching rather than hitting them, and his words similarly skirt themes and flirt with meaning. Concrete ideas and images emerge, but nothing is ever so defined that a single interpretation is clear. Often my first impression of a song flips on subsequent listen, when one bent note or one turn of phrase that I didn’t notice before makes me rethink the rest. At best Oldham’s songs are powerfully ambiguous, and that’s true of all of them on Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

This time around, Oldham finds ambiguity in the elusive concept of the self—what it is, how it changes, how it will end. A few of these tunes are ostensibly about relationships, but even those center on the self and its struggle to connect. “I see you go on/ and I go too, but not with you,” Oldham sings in the album’s second song, “Lessons from Stony",  his voice rising with caution. On the next tune, “Triumph of Will", he laments that he and his partner are “never lost together… We are two separate people/ We never will be one.” By song’s end the couple have willed their way to unity, but it’s a triumph that doesn’t last long.

From there, Oldham becomes increasingly pessimistic about love. “All our hearts are stained and every love is tainted,” he declares at one point, and later “there is no heaven for love, it simply dies.” He also becomes increasingly obsessed with mortality, both fascinated and terrified by death of the self. On “I Will Be Born Again” he sings the title repetitively as if trying to convince himself of the impossible. On the deceptively upbeat “This is My Cocktail” he admits fearing two things: “losing my mind, losing my body.” And by the time of “Ending it All (As I Do),” he sounds resigned: “the beginning of ending is already done.” Throughout these musings, his guitar winds around like a stream of consciousness, shifting between simple melodies and looser, less certain structures.

It may sound like Bonnie "Prince" Billy is an intense listen, but much of it is also spry and catchy, and some of it is pretty funny too. One song about a pig kept in a chest at the foot of a bed plays like a surrealist cartoon, and even when Oldham is staring at death, he stays wry and absurd, dropping humorous motifs throughout. A particularly amusing one is his persistent use of the word “fun,” which is held up as a kind of life-goal holy grail. But its attainment is always uncertain, which gives the album tension.

That uncertainty, and Oldham’s sense of the self as constant flux, also give Bonnie "Prince’"Billy a Zen feel—and, by the end, a meditative calm. Closer “Royal Quiet Deluxe” describes driving down a highway to escape a failed relationship, but also to meet something greater. “If we die many times, then let death come to me,” he sings spiritedly—and then suddenly switches into a upbeat epilogue. “This is the last song of its kind,” he croons as if he’s peacefully accepted his demise, or moved on to something new. It’s one of the most sublime moments in a musical career already full of them—and it ends with the album’s sunniest line: “Ain’t it the best?” Once you’ve taken this fascinating journey with Oldham, it’s hard not to agree.

Tracklist
A1  I Heard Of A Source  
A2  Lessons From Stony  
A3  Triumph Of Will  
A4  I Will Be Born Again  
A5  Make It Not An Evil Mark  
B1  The Spotted Pig  
B2  This Is My Cocktail  
B3  Bad Man  
B4  Ending It All (As I Do)  
B5  Royal Quiet Deluxe  

    Copyright (c) – Royal Stable Music

    Mastered By – Timothy Stollenwerk

"Both art and life require illusion whether reducing 3 dimensions to 2 on paper or enlarging 2 to 3 in life."

Condition:  LP in a paper inner sleeve in a picture sleeve is NEW and UNPLAYED (though not sealed).  Comes with insert card with lyrics on one side and picture on the other.