Good Morning Spider [VINYL]

Alt-music one-man-band Sparklehorse veers between rock, punk and who-knows-what in "Good Morning Spider." In the sophomore album, Mark Linkous crafts a sonic extravaganza of brilliant music, strange and surreal and enticingly dark.

It starts off small in the opening minute of "Pig," then explodes into a rollicking staticky rocker. Following up are mournful laments like "Painbird" and "Sunshine," almost inaudible ballads "Saint Mary" and the funereal "Come On In," steady rock-outs like "Cruel Sun," and eerie panoramic sweeps "Good Morning Spider" and both halves of "Box of Stars." One of the strangest tracks is "Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man," which languishes in static for a few minutes before blossoming into a solid rock song.

Near-death experiences tend to change a person's life. In Linkous's case, it changed his music -- "Good Morning Spider" is warped by a near-death experience that almost killed him, and left him paralyzed for quite some time. So don't expect happy, perky music -- rather, Linkous seems to be exorcising his demons and experiences all in one swoop.

Like Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse makes the most of staticky guitars. It has a contemplative lo-fi sound, but is tinged with a few other things -- the bass, gravelly guitar and percussion are joined by violins, cello and organ, along with sweeps of static that give a surreal feel to this textured music. At times it's smooth, at times it's rough, but never ordinary.

His near-death experience shines through Linkous's songwriting, with lines like, "My bones wish to escape," the funeral tone of the children's-prayer-like "Come On In," and the wistful announcement that "All I want is to be a happy man." Even aside from the morbid beauty of these songs, his writing is evocative and entrancing: "A beautiful woman she rose/from the smoking waters of the lake/with a candle that burned in each palm..."

Rarely are so many beautiful songs linked together, and rarely is such raw emotion put into music. Sparklehorse's "Good Morning Spider" is a rare and treasured rock album, and deserves to be a classic.

I was moved to write about Sparklehorse after hearing the sad news of Mark Linkous death. His band was never big news in the music press, so he was largely spared the indignity of having his depression romanticised for our benefit. What was obvious was that the beautiful, otherworldly music he created required considerable effort on his part, so for that we can only be grateful.

Probably my favourite record of his, Good Morning Spider, was created in the wake of a previous suicide attempt that threatened to leave him paralysed. It is record haunted by images of hospital beds and bodily failings, hazy in a kind of half light. Yet it is also tender and consoling, the most gentle songs here like fragile lullabies.

Painbirds lilts on a mournful riff before a lovely trumpet solo transforms the melody into something quite different and more uplifting. The song ends with a euphoric wash of strings and music box. Junebug is jaunty and joyous, bouncing on an irresistible melody. The acoustic Hey Joe is softly reassuring in the vein of a song like Everybody Hurts, (Michael Stipe was a vocal champion of the band).

At the same time, the album is also shot through with black humour and poisonous invective, as on the furious country punk of Pig and the funereal hospital ruminations of Saint Mary. The bleakly observed, chugging ode to depression Ghost of his Smile is playful yet deals in what was obviously a matter of great pain to Linkous. Elsewhere, Sick of Goodbyes and Maria's Little Elbows are simply fantastic songs, immensely tuneful, poppy folk rock.

Any Sparklehorse album is well worth your time, and it looks like this year will finally see the release of his collaboration with Danger Mouse and David Lynch, Dark Night of The Soul. It's a fitting tribute to a great talent.

Sparklehorse are possibly my favourite band around today. Their style of music is best described as similar to Granddaddy in that it isnt conventional rock, pop or any other type of genre. In my opinion this album is a must buy as many music critics agree.