Sings Greatest Palace Music

When I explored a bit deeper into Oldham's back catalog, I found the presentation a bit more, um, "challenging." His brilliance as a songwriter is there, but his work prior to "I See A Darkness" is EXTREMELY (and I mean extremely) "lo-fi"--rambling, unfocused performances that sound like they were recorded underwater. I still own "Arise Therefore," "Days In The Wake," and "There Is No One..." but I can't say I listen to any of them very often.

So it was wonderful to hear this disc- the performances are tight and professional, and the greatness of the older songs really comes through. I *highly* recommend this to anyone interested in Will Oldham's music, especially if they find the sloppiness of his earlier albums off-putting.

Will Oldham, or Bonnie "Prince" Billy as he's called again this time around, has set out to create an album that attempts to rebirth songs from his early days of Palace Music. These new versions are decidedly more heavily produced than their predecessors and have taken on a completely new face. Be forewarned, this is 100% country music with zero "alt" added. Unfortunately, a large portion of the album could fit into the category of corporate sounding country music. Is it bad? Not necessarily. Additionally, the fact that Will Oldham has been hailed the quintessential alt-country artist may be the saving grace that will keep Greatest Palace Music firmly placed in the underground.

Recorded in Nashville with several session musicians, you have to admire Oldham for not holding back on the country. This is easily his safest recording to date and is miles away from the highly admired I See a Darkness. Because of this, don't expect to hear too much song-by-song analysis of this album from the critics. There's nothing groundbreaking about any of this album. Once into the first song, you'll have a pretty good idea of where you stand. For the most part, the scope is entirely the same throughout the entire album. In some ways, it parallels Beck's approach on Sea Change, where every sense of edginess has been removed to only highlight the purest form of music expression. It's also similar in the sense that it's the last direction you'd expect someone like Oldham to take. Or is it really just something that was inevitable from the beginning? Either way, it sounds as if it's the record he has always wanted to record.

If I had to be completely honest with you (which I do), I'd say that Greatest Palace Music is a pretty fantastic album. It accomplishes exactly what it has set out to do, and that's to be a country album that holds no surprises. Although it has a lot of things going against it, including the fact that Oldham's fans are not typically traditional country music lovers, it's pretty hard not to deny the fact that this is the type of album that will stand out in his catalogue for quite some time. It just misses in its impact too many times to truly be a great album.