Customer Reviews

Days in the Wake

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is an enigma... I don't know why I like it so much, or why I've recomended it to every fan of quality music I know. To reduce this album to its basic parts doesn't leave one with much: Will Oldham can't play guitar very well, his voice fails him in many instances, the writing is not terribly complex... basically lots of repetition musically and lyrically, and for the most part, these sound like first takes recorded on a walkman... but, it's so damn compelling... it's trance-inducing music, it reminds a little bit of the poetry of Taggart or the fiction of Rick Bass: repeat a simple theme over and over again with slight variations until it just becomes lodged in the listener's brain. For instance, the opening "You will miss me when I burn" repeats "When you have no-one/No-one can hurt you"... there's little else to the song... very sparse writing, but it's haunting, in gets in you. Will's cracking voice and amateur guitar just manages to sound so sincere, so desperate. The other highlight is the closer "I am a Cinematographer" again, the repetition of the title phrase takes on greater and greater weight amid the other slight, simple lyrics... in the end, Oldham leaves a lot of the work up to the the listener... that's why it sounds unpolished. This is music that demands the listener finish some of the logic, make meaning of the songs: what does "I am a cinematographer mean"? Who can say? I took it as "I am only an observer" or "I see things the way I want to see them"... but, the great thing is that your own take on it will vary. And may change after many listens. Yes, it's a challenging album, but well worth the trouble.

This was the first Will Oldham/Palace Brothers album I picked up and it remains my favorite. His later albums are great but tend to have a few amazing songs mixed in with songs that drag a bit. Every song on this album is strong (and short). The last track, "I am a cinematographer" is especially beautiful and nostalgic. Check this album out if you like a kind of post-modern folk/country style of music. Viva Last Blues is also a great album. By the way, I've seen Will perform twice, both solo shows. Once he had a drum machine with him that pumped out beats and the other time, he just brought his acoustic guitar. See him live if you get a chance, his performances are weird and haunting and beautiful.

This was a throwaway impulse buy, which turned into a soundtrack for my life. It goes against every rule of modern rock: its, primitively recorded, played on a single, twangy acoustic guitar, sung in a kind of awkward, swooping falsetto and lasts less than thirty minutes. It is also the one of the most intelligent, literate and intensely moving albums of the nineties. If you have any kind of heart, brain or soul, you should buy this and prepare to be haunted for the rest of your life.

This is an album that cools by the windowsill and will take you to a thousand different backroads, each one more rustic and poetic than the last, like a movie, until you realize you're listening to an album and not getting lost in a visual world you didn't create but feel so attached to. Songs like "I Send My Love To You" or "All is Grace" are timeless snapshots of everywhere and everything, in the grass and heads nodding underneath the fire of the sun. This is music they make suitcases and trains out of. These are all must-have songs that will leave you satisfied. Buy this novel immediately.

This album is just Will Oldham on an accoustic guitar singing ten incredible songs that come straight from the heart. Sure his guitar playing and singing aren't perfect, but that's not the point. Like all of the folk greats, you can hear subtle "mistakes" like the hands moving across the strings or a part where the recording microphone doesn't pick up the sound of the instrument or voice that well. That doesn't matter. What matters is the feeling, and this album has a lot of it. I would describe the sound of this record to some one as a basic strumming folk record with a Leonard Cohen feel to it. What's amazing about this record is how well it stands up from start to finish.

Will Oldham has released records under many names: Palace, Palace Songs, Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Will Oldham and now he is with his longest incarnation: Bonny Prince Billy. As the last alias he is been fairly succesful, he has of course been covered by Johnny Cash.

This album, which I just know as "The Palace Brothers" is one of my favorites. Whereas many lofi albums are a mix of junk and popdiamonds, the quality of this album is good.

The guitar is acoustic and very basic, the voice shaky but the songs are of a high standard. The beautiful "You Will Me Me When I Burn" starts of the record and it just goes on. The simple song "I Send My Love To You" is the best song and should be sung around campfire everywhere.

A must-have for the indie/lo-fi fan.

This is one of those CDs that gets under your fingernails and down into your bones. Oldham couldn't play acoustic guitar or sing or write songs back then, but he's like a spooky old man on a front porch somewhere in coal country. Every song is a quiet night with a storm gathering in the distance. It's absolutely unforgettable.

OHHHH man. So I dug Palace before I heard this album. I had heard alot of his other stuff, and thought him pretty brilliant. But THIS album... OH MAN. I was driving to Boston in the middle of the night with my fiancee, popped this in for the first time, and niether one of us spoke for the duration. All time froze, the cars and darkness cleared a path, and we were swept along with this gorgeous simple infinite sound in our ears. Sure, his voice is a little wavery but THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT! I mean PLENTY of people can 'sing pretty', but Will Oldham sounds like he's seen 100 years of pain and glory and his voice just bleeds honesty. The whole thing is just amazing. I hate to gush, but I can't help it. This is music at it's best. Buy it, please, it'll make you smile and stop your breath, I promise.

"when was the first time you realised the next time would be the last time"

Need I say more? This album is lyrically and musically very strong. The lyrics that Will Oldham writes and the way that he sings them make this album dangerously beautiful.

Some songs on this album sound like they were recorded in the middle of the woods, others like the studio was a backroom in a 200 year old country house with cracks in the paint and holes in the ceiling. If track 3 were to be replaced with ,say, track 4 on "lost blues", this would be an absolute masterpiece.Every song is stunning, but track 3 is pretty terrible.