silence kit #18

Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Master And Everyone [Palace, 2003]

A muffled count-in barely decipherable begins Master And Everyone, possibly Will Oldham’s most understated album recorded under the Bonnie “Prince” Billy moniker, and yet there is this feeling of quiet rebellion about the way these ten songs are performed. “Let your unloved parts get loved” he sings on the opening “The Way”, all its likely lasciviousness is flattened by how Oldham went about his business stoically; his muted delivery throughout Master And Everyone has the effect of quarrying the sublime out from the mundane. Too somber and private for some, maybe, but Oldham devotees undoubtedly would have found this slight change of pace quite illuminating – he employs the album’s general listlessness and slow rehabilitative moods as strengths. As Master And Everyone slides indolently into its quiet groove, the songs give the listener plenty of time to settle in, Oldham writing and singing about a bunch of simple stuff that are not outside the limits of our life experiences. I guess I listen to this album quite a fair bit whenever I am not feeling too good. Buried in the details of songs like “Wolf Among Wolves” and “Lessons From What’s Poor” are the clandestine undertones of one’s travails.