Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Dark Night Of the Soul

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night Of the Soul

It’s been a tumultuous journey for the release of Dark Night of the Soul, the second and final collaborative effort from Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. After a lengthy legal battle with EMI and a deliberate Internet leak from the artists themselves, the album is finally available, more than one year after the initial release date.

It’s challenging to pinpoint an exact sound for Dark Night of the Soul – largely due to its extensive list of contributors. Parts of the album are fused with pure rock – Iggy Pop lent his signature deep vocals for ‘Pain’, and Pixies frontman Black Francis’s ‘Angel’s Harp’ is a bluesy, gritty number.

One of the album’s highlights is ‘Little Girl’, starring Julian Casablancas of The Strokes. With another uniquely brilliant set of vocals, Casablancas makes this an insanely catchy song. This is certainly one of the best collaborations on the album.

These three tracks are sandwiched between a slew of more moving songs, many seemingly bleeding with pain. Made even more poignant by the recent suicide of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, it’s difficult to not draw some parallels between them.

Opener ‘Revenge’ (featuring Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips) is one of the most emotional moments of Dark Night of the Soul. “Pain, I guess it’s a matter of sensation”, sings Coyne. “In my mind/I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart/I just didn’t understand/The ricochet is the second part”. And as he repeatedly sings “The more that it backfires” over quiet drumbeats and simple, airy hums, it’s obvious this will be one treat of an album.

With other appearances from Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, James Mercer of The Shins and Broken Bells (side-project with Danger Mouse), Nina Persson of The Cardigans and Vic Chestnutt (who also committed suicide, on Christmas Day 2009), this star-packed album is strikingly beautiful and genuine the entire way through.

Dedicated to the late Linkous and Chestnutt, Dark Night of the Soul is a timeless collection that leaves a legacy they can be proud of.

The album can be streamed in full here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104129585

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