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Album Review
by SashaS
19-1-2005
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| 'Prince' Billy/Sweeney's 'Superwolf' |
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Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: 'Superwolf'
(Domino)
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy's bedside stories
Americans are renown as a God-fearing country with one dollar bill carrying message ‘In God We Trust’; to the left of it is a Latin inscription ‘Novus Ordo Seclorum’ which means -
‘New Secular Order’; yep, a New World Order in the nonreligious sense, more like science based. This message is contained within the Great Seal that also sports a pyramid and a third-eye, both of which are symbols of the Freemasons and/or Illuminati secret societies.
Pyramid is an ancient symbol representing convergence upwards. Toward the ultimate source of Illumination. The eye inside the triangle, called Trinacria or ‘shining delta’, is a call for enlightened change. These two contradictory messages found place on the Great Seal thanks to Vice President Henry Wallace; he and his ‘boss’ Franklin D. Roosevelt were fellow Freemasons.
Such-like polarity one detects whilst indulging ears to Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and Matt Sweeney’s debut collaboration ‘Superwolf’. Apparently this, the first studio teaming of Oldham and Sweeney, occurred after they played together as part of Domino’s 10th Birthday celebrations, when the former challenged the latter to set his lyrics to music.
Written, developed and conceived over months in London, New Orleans, Brooklyn and Baltimore, that included live shows, the album marks a departure from the lush, warm tones of 'Greatest Palace Music'. 'Superwolf' is a return to the bare, meditative sounds of ‘Palace’ & early Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy recordings. And, there lies its enchanting beauty…
Gliding in on a slightly-country flavoured ‘My Home Is The Sea’, the feeling increases on ‘Best Of Thee’, with crystal-clear tones that ‘rock’ like a no-name-wave… Still, this ain’t linear music but occasional complex arrangements, delightful dynamics and gorgeous interplays secure dais for vocals that touch emo-endings with such power to shatter paranoia.
Even more quieten’d-down ‘What Are You?’ provides the most poignant moment on the disc that brims with goodies as if Chrimbosis has never left the Planet Feelgood. A mainly pensive and introspective song cycle feeling like being able to address innermost troubles. Even when the ambient is upped, during ‘Goat and Ram’ and ‘Blood Embrace’, it is grandiloquently of such a dramatic impact that underlines the album’s darkly magnificent mood.
‘Superwolf’ is a couple of young guys on a porch playing to find their inner deliverance. They certainly succeed…
8/10
SashaS
19-1-2005
Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s album ‘Superwolf’ is released 17 January 2005 by Domino
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