Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Presents:

Dark Night of the Soul

“There are good people in this world of bums, but sadly I am not one”.

2009 saw the partial release of Dark Night of the Soul, a collaboration between Danger Mouse, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and movie director David Lynch. Unusually, it included a blank CD-R and a book of photographs by David Lynch which was intended to accompany the music. This was due to an ongoing legal dispute between Danger Mouse and EMI, the details of which neither party has revealed. It has since come to light that the album will finally see a proper release in 2010. Up until now the album was available to stream online.

Dark Night of the Soul features several notable vocalists, from Jason Lytle of lo-fi band Grandaddy, to veteran rocker Iggy Pop and a first collaboration between Danger Mouse and James Mercer from The Shins, who recently worked together under the name Broken Bells.

As might be guessed from the album’s title, this is a dark record born from Mark Linkous’ “death” in 1996 while touring with Radiohead and his battle with depression throughout his life. The album opens with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips providing vocals on Revenge. Just War featuring Gruff Rhys and Jaykub featuring Jason Lytle follow giving us a trio of songs dealing with themes about pain, loss, war and finding your place in the world. These songs are cleverly crafted as the light, wondrous singing styles of the first three guest artists act as counterpoint to the darker themes contained in the lyrics. This is a style each of them employ in their own records to great effect and Danger Mouse and Linkous have used this to great effect.

If the initial trio of guest vocalists tended towards the soft, reedy psychedelic side of the scale, the next three tracks provide a bit more of a rock feel, with Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Black Francis (Pixies) and Iggy Pop on vocal duties. The tempo is upped considerably with these tracks, with Iggy Pop telling us on Pain that “good karma will not get you anywhere, look at Jesus and his hair”. This track sums up the album and Linkous’ view on life. It’s all about pain, failure and not fitting in.

The tempo slows down again with Star Eyes (I Can Catch It) featuring The Shins’ James Mercer. This is a return to the softer, almost pleading vocal style of Linkous himself and his guests Coyne, Rhys and Lytle. At times it would be difficult to tell these guys apart, but it’s clear that this is a style that Linkous appreciates and it certainly lends itself well to the beautiful soundscapes here. After Mercer, Jason Lytle returns with Everytime I’m With You – an ode to getting wasted because there’s nothing else to do. As this album progresses it becomes more obvious that this is Linkous laid bare and that he was a very troubled, but very talented soul.

James Mercer returns on Insane Lullaby. A mash up of strings, fuzzy drums and bells and whistles played to a gentle vocal. Quite literally an insane lullaby and another insight into Linkous’ soul. As Mercer rounds of the song he tells us “A good life will never be enough”.

The album takes a turn in the direction of pop on Daddy’s Gone featuring Nina Persson (The Cardigans) and Linkous himself on vocals. This is a more optimistic song than previous tracks and shows a different nostalgic side to Linkous. Suzanne Vega follows with The Man Who Played God, another slightly more optimistic sounding song about dealing with mental issues.

Vic Chesnutt sings the penultimate track, Grim Augury. A lo-fi track with understated drums and percussion that plods along to Chesnutt’s voice. This blends almost seamlessly into the last song and title track of the album, Dark Night of the Soul. David Lynch provides a haunting, reedy vocal, over and lazy jazz style backing track that crackles away. This song is both haunting and chilling with Lynch repeating the line “where are you baby, dark dream world, dark night of the soul”. It’s a fitting end to an album that gives an insight into the tortured mind of Mark Linkous.

Linkous and Danger Mouse have produced a great record here, ably assisted by an array of musical talent. If you like your music dark, then this is a record worth looking into. The record features some great guest vocalists though, with Jason Lytle and Nina Persson standing out in particular. Having said that, this isn’t a record that will appeal to all music fans. It suffers a little in the second quarter when the tempo picks up and overall will be a little too dark for the mainstream. A sad footnote to this release was the recent suicide of Mark Linkous.