The Letting Go Bonnie "Prince" Billy

BUY THIS ITEM

  • $16.99 List price
    $12.39 Online price
    (Save 27%)
    $11.15 Member price
    Join Now
    • skip to cart
  • Add To List uiAction=GetAllLists&page=List&pageType=list&ean=781484042020&productCode=MU&maxCount=100&threshold=3

GET FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OF $25 OR MORE

DELIVERY & GIFT DETAILS:

Usually ships within 24 hours

Get It There On Time
Holiday Delivery Schedule

Delivery Time and Shipping Rates

Eligible for gift wrap & gift message.

Enter a zip code

CD

  • Release Date: 09/19/2006
  • Sales Rank: 49,461
  • Label: DRAG CITY
  • UPC: 781484042020

Listener Rating: (1 ratings)

See All Detailed Ratings

Customers who bought this also bought

 
  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
Click on LISTEN or link to hear an audio clip.
To listen to samples you'll need a Windows Media Player

The Letting Go

1LISTENLove Comes to Me 4:31
2LISTENStrange Form of Life 3:46
3LISTENWai 3:37
4LISTENCursed Sleep 5:35
5LISTENNo Bad News 4:45
6LISTENCold & Wet 2:21
7LISTENBig Friday 2:43
8LISTENLay and Love 3:50
9LISTENThe Seedling 4:36
10LISTENThen the Letting Go 5:19
11LISTENGod's Small Song 4:03
12LISTENI Called You Back 7:51
13LISTEN[Untitled Track] 5:12

About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

Will Oldham has usually preached the gospel of less-is-more, but after an own-covers record that emanated from the belly of Nashville itself (Bonnie Prince Billy Sings Greatest Palace Songs), followed by a collaboration with guitarist Matt Sweeney (Superwolf) and a churning live record (Summer in the Southeast), his work began to seem positively indulgent. The Letting Go is not quite as far a stretch, but it is yet another intriguing departure. Granted, its approach would strike most bands as skeletal, but compared to his last solo album of originals, 2003's Master and Everyone, it sounds downright gaudy. It was recorded in Iceland with a producer, Valgeir Sigurosson, who gets more out of Oldham's voice and songs than has ever been heard on record. Oldham's harmony companion, Dawn McCarthy from Faun Fables, takes a much larger role than her predecessor on Master and Everyone, and her credit for harmony arrangements tells you everything you need to know about how important she is to the success of this album. Oldham's songwriting is breathtaking, close to the best of his career, although little changed from the norm -- his surreal, fatalistic take on Americana Gothic. "Cursed Sleep" is especially wonderful, with a string arrangement that harks back to Nick Drake's "Way to Blue," haunted vocals from McCarthy the chanteuse far in the background, and a set of lyrics that build up to a tragic peak ("Cursed love is never ended, cursed eyes are never closing, cursed arms are never closing, cursed children never rising, cursed me never despising"). To the other extreme is "Cold & Wet," a downright jaunty (despite the lyrics), fingerpicked blues of the type that Mississippi John Hurt would have recorded for Vanguard in the mid-'60s, and percussion from Dirty Three drummer Jim White that could be confused with electric drums or the worst recorded organic drum set ever heard. Truth to tell, since the quality of Oldham's songwriting has rarely wavered, the excellent arrangements and McCarthy's contributions make The Letting Go the best of his career to this point. John Bush, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

  • Listener Rating:
  • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

Letting Goby Anonymous

Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings

January 22, 2008: Over the course of his fifteen-year career, Will Oldham has proved himself one of America's most enduring, if idiosyncratic, singers, someone who, despite frequent sharp turns and collaborations, has crafted a voice that is unmistakably his. Having enjoyed his Palace records but dropping off somewhere after the first couple of 'Bonnie Prince Billy' records, I first heard this play at a cinema showing of the movie he recently starred in, Old Joy, and was immediately struck but its spaciousness, the use of strings, and its departure from his usual strangled folk. The rich production -- while it will, on principle even, turn some people off -- is so artfully done that it feels less like the padding these additions can so often be than a perfect embellishment of Oldham's intensely personal, elliptical narratives. Dawn McCarthy from the Faun Fables, who provides mesmerising, constantly surprising back-up vocals, is less a constant presence than a ghost, rising up when you least expect it, providing some of the records most enduring hooks. Most of all, Oldham seems completely at ease on this record, with himself, with his instruments, with his words, which makes the record a pleasure to listen to, and much less of an ordeal than many of the LPs to come out under the 'Bonnie' moniker. After the WTF moment with the Greatest hits album, and his great dabbling with rougher textures on the Superwolf collaboration, Oldham continues to prove there is very little he is not capable of "for further proof, check out his recent video clip of Kanye West's 'Can't Tell Me Nothin'."