silence kit #5

Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Superwolf [Drag City, 2005]

On the liner notes for Superwolf, Will Oldham thanks "the SWEENDOG for kicking it so hard". Those among us jonesing for a little more medicine for melancholy were rejoicing and thankful too for this, an album of crumbly beauty that is easily an essential piece of the Will Oldham canon. Sweeney wrote the music, with Oldham authoring the lyrics, and Superwolf mixes the sublime and the creepy in a mesmerizing way perhaps only these two are capable of. The guitar-folk feel of songs like "Only Someone Running" and "Lift Us Up" are actually not far afield from the other Bonnie Prince Billy records that the prolific Oldham has been putting out, save for sounding much more bareboned and relieved of country afflections. "My Home Is The Sea" is a complete different beast though, taking on the guise of a rock bruiser and yet Sweeney's guitar playing is more erratic than epic. Superwolf reaches equilibrium with Oldham's most self-deprecating pleas on "Beast For Thee", as appropriate a song as it comes for bloody valentines (I used to joke that I'm gonna marry the first girl I could find who digs Will Oldham as much as me but well, that joke is getting to be kinda unbearable now and absolutely unfunny, for I did manage to meet a person of said description on my travels, and naturally she turns out to be practically unattainable), Will turning on his charms ("I will toil for years and years/Give you muscle, tone and tears/ Overcome and flay all fears/ Leaving me, a beast for thee") and joined by Sweeney's simple, most plaintive melodies. Vulnerable, spontaneous, softly wrenching and yet sounding a bit sordid: "Beast For Thee" is exactly the kind of offhand genius that Oldham has consistently delivered, be it in more intimate song cycles or in tutelary collaborations like Superwolf, kicking it hard with kindred musicians. (Oh I forgot to mention: Matt Sweeney used to play in Chavez, Zwan and a few other outfits.)