I picked up It's a Wonderful Life the third studio album by Sparklehorse from 2001 and on Capital/EMI in my local charity shop prior to going on my hols.
It joins its 1998 predecessor Good Morning Spider on the shelves. While still not necessarily an easy listen it is more accessible than GMS with slightly less apparently random distortion.
This maybe because this time round Mark Linkous is not providing all the music and vocalsvocals.
Here he is joined by some heavyweights including Tom Waits, P.J. Harvey (on the 2nd song below), John Parish and Nina Persson.
My ticket tin tells me I saw Sparklehorse at King Tuts (venue changed from The Arches) on Monday 12th October 1998 paying £7.50 for ticket number 00622.
Sadly Mark Linkous did not have a wonderful life.In 1996 he almost lost the use of his legs after collapsing unconscious following a drug overdose with his legs pinned under him.
Then in March 2010 going though a marriage breakup he completed suicide by shooting himself.He was 47.
Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life
Sparklehorse - Eyepennies
Their i.e Mark Linkous' debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot is by far the most accessible Sparklehorse album and that's the one of theirs you should have. Subsequent albums are pretty sombre, introspective affairs which are best suited I think for listening to in the winter months. You probably saw them when they were promoting Good Morning Spider. It's A Wonderful Life came a couple of years later. I saw them early 2000s at Sheffield Leadmill in great anticipation and as I think I've said on here before was pretty underwhelmed and very disappointed - the people I went with though took a more positive view which made for a spot of head scratching. Vive la difference!
ReplyDeleteDid they survive the A-Z cull?
DeleteSorry, late on this. Yes they did lol. I'm pretty weak when it comes to making hard-nosed decisions and some bands have my loyalty way beyond the actual inherent quality of their individual albums. Who knows what will happen though when I embark on the A-Z cull (slight return) in 5 years time!
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