Sparklehorse are a band that I had never hear of, and to be honest the name put me off – however one day I heard one of their songs playing and it really intrigued me into listening to some more of their work. I have since bought two of their albums: ‘Good Morning Spider’ and ‘Dreamt for Years in the Belly of a Mountain’.

~~The Band

Sparklehorse is made up of the main guy Mark Linkous along with some of his friends. His touring band also change with some albums. Some help in this album comes from DangerMouse, Sophie Michalitsianos (Sol Seppy) and Stephen Drozd. There are many various artists that influence the band, including Tom Waits (featured also on the album) and Daniel Johnson, who he looked to for his music when things got tough.

Linkous’ first band was called the ‘Dancing Hoods’, and after two albums, then formed another pop group called ‘Johnson Family’ which later became ‘Salt Chunk Mary’. He formed Sparklehorse after this in 1995.

Linkous’ voice has real meaning to it, projected by different influences in his life; for example his struggles with depression and his near-fatal overdose of valium mixed with anti-depressant, when he was found after a heart attack with his legs trapped under his body, resulting in him having perform with his band in a wheelchair for a time and now wears leg braces.

~~The CD

This is the fourth CD released by Sparklehorse in September 2006. There was a gap of five years between albums since he lost a bit of interest in recording. It is a sad and dreamlike album, with Linkous’ captivating voice that sounds heart breaking, even when he is trying to sound upbeat. A lot of it was recorded in his own home and played by himself, just like the first album ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ and ‘Good Morning Spider’.

Linkous tends to play everything in many of his songs and hates to play live, both because he can’t control everything and he hates the sound of his own voice! A lot of the background vocals are his own, and he plays around with different pitches and ways that he can make them sound different.

The music is ‘stark, moody, pretty stuff’ (Linkous), however he does have pop stuff inside of him which would like to get out – though knows that that is sometimes dangerous, sounding more contrived and pedestrian.

~~The Tracks

1. Don’t Take My Sunshine Away (3.05)

I think that this would be my favourite on the album. Linkous’ captivating voice pulls you into the upbeat song, which is actually about him imploring his lover not to leave him.

2. Getting It Wrong (2.16)
This track surprised me – after the first listen, I didn’t think I liked it that much, it didn’t seem to go anywhere and it was really chilled out. Then I heard it again and found that it had grown on me enormously, it’s so chilled out its great, it doesn’t really go anywhere, so it’s nice and relaxing and the tune just carries you along in the song. It’s not a very long song, and once it’s finished you just want to play it again. It reminds me of Air’s Playground Love, which is a song that I’ve come to love, as I came to like this song too!!

3. Shade And Honey (4.08)
It’s easy to hear a clear tune that is used throughout this track; however I would say that it was a bit weaker than previous songs in the album as the song just seems to plod along slowly and without clear direction. This song had already been released in both film and soundtrack of Laurel Canyon (2002), and was sung by Allesandro Nivola.

4. See The Light (3.42)
This song starts off with a guitar plucking away and slowly gets into the song (some parts of which remind me of Sigur Ros or Mogwai). Because of the long introduction, it feels like quite a short song, however it is worth listening to and keeps a nice beat for tapping along with.

5. Return To Me (3.18)
“Return to me, my love” – the main lyric of this song can show what this song is like. With it’s sad and yet enchanting lyrics along with the melody that is both heart breaking and beautiful, this song is a lovely song to find yourself listening to.

6. Some Sweet Day (4.20)
This would by my second favourite track on the album. It starts off well and carries on in the same manner, with a good tune and nice chorus to sing along to.

7. Ghost In The Sky (3.28)
This song had already been released in the Japanese Pressing and in previous album ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. This is probably the most upbeat song on the album, however Linkous’ voice makes the song both upbeat and despairing at the same time.

8. Mountains (3.42)
‘It’s going to be alright’, with lyrics such as this and the voice sounding despairing, the song sounds like he is trying hard to console and comfort. This song is warm, with the guitar and drums taking most of the song to the more upbeat level, and his voice bringing it back down to what is common with Sparklehorse.

9. Morning Hollow (7.23)
This track can also be found as a bonus track in previous album ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’; it is a song that Linkous thought would get more attention. By wanting the string section to sound really old and eccentric, Linkous found a cheap plastic microphone found in a dump. However as Tom Waits was featured in this song playing the piano, a computer was used in his section to make it sound old. The song sounds like it was found on a beach – aged, scratchy and warped.

10. It’s Not So Hard (2.52)
This is a ‘charged-up collaboration with Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips is one of the more upbeat songs on this album. This album seems to be about things long gone and is a persuasive and encouraging song, which could be recalled from previous experiences by Linkous; it is one which I would like to help encourage me to do something if I were faltering.

11. Knives Of Summertime (4.19)
Built around a dusty piano, this song reminds me of the Flaming Lips style of song. It has a clear melody to it, however is one that seems to drag on a bit in places. I like it when songs get a bit unusual towards the end though and it does make you wonder what might come next, I think that this song is one which is like that. Though this song seems like it could be quite a popular song on the album, I wouldn’t say that it would be one of my favourites.

12. Dreamt For Years In The Belly Of A Mountain (10.35)
Like some of the other songs previously mentioned; this track had already been released in the album ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ LP version under the name ‘Maxine’ (named after his grandmother) and also on the ‘Gold Day’ EP. It is an instrumental which is sad and intriguing to listen to and is Linkous’ favourite on the album. If you are looking for a nice instrumental, this is one of the better ones out there!

~~The Price

I can’t remember where I got this album from, or what it cost me, so I had a look around. I haven’t looked for this album in any shops, however after looking at prices online, it can be seen that probably Play.com is the cheapest at £8.95, with Amazon next at £8.98. HMV also sell it at a higher price of £10.99. I’m sure it can be found for cheaper at other websites or in shops; however these are the main places I would look if trying to purchase a CD.

~~Conclusion

If you are a fan of bands such as Beck, Flaming Lips, Johnny Cash or DangerMouse then this album would really interest you and . This album is slow and atmospheric – one that it is chilled out and nice to relax to. Although I wouldn’t claim that this would be in my list of favourite albums or favourite bands, I would recommend this to other people and think that many people would enjoy it.