Master & Everyone

Bonnie Prince Billy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 28, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Drag City
• ASIN: B000083ME8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,256 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bonnie "Prince" Billy, a.k.a. Will Oldham, is no ordinary bard. His writing, which can call to mind 19th-century American poets like Walt Whitman, has won him a cult of fans that include Marianne Faithfull, Björk, and Beck. Master's painfully fragile intensity is disconcerting and challenging, yet its purity and tenderness is soothing all the same. Dark, intimate, and sparsely arranged, it's a loose, meditative concept record that explores issues of gender, self, and love. Here Oldham trades in his familiar warble for a hushed, clear high tenor and a rock band for his acoustic guitar; ever-so-soft strings and keyboards warm up the arrangements while he is backed by Marty Slayton's sweet, feminine harmonies. Lyrically less dense than previous releases, Master does retain Oldham's typically quaint phrasings, as in "Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?" and "Joy and Jubilee." With a few listens, these 10 oddly gentle songs will endear themselves, and perhaps prove Master to be Oldham's best and most personal work to date. --Jillian Steinberger

Product Description

3rd album from the subtle & quirky singer/songwriter. Palace/Drag City. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Oldham Hurrah!, January 30, 2003

By 

"firewalkwithme00" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master & Everyone (Audio CD)

I recently pulled out my old copy of "There's No One What Will Take Care of You" and gave it a listen. That album is still outstanding but what's truly incredible is how much Will Oldham has evolved over just the last eight or nine years. Ever since first taking on the Bonnie Prince title a few years back he has reached a new plateau in his song writing. Where "I See A Darkness" was bleak and frightened and "Ease Down The Road" was drunken and melancholic, "Master and Everyone" is much more subtle album. It is more endearing than "Ease Down The Road" and at the same time more devestating than "I See A Darkness." It is a collection of some of the most resonant and profound songs I have heard in the last... well, ever. The writing and presentation work hand in hand to bring out the emotions this album inspires. At once a work of great beauty and great sadness, I can say without reservation that this album is my favorite of all Oldham's releases, and I've heard almost every last thing he's done. Only a talent like Oldham could make a line like "It's a hard life for a man with no wife" ring with deep resonancy and continue to haunt with a transcendant melancholy. Have you figured it out yet? I LIKE THIS ALBUM!!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bonnie prince billy is king, January 24, 2005

By 

Dan Grissom (Nacogdoches, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Master & Everyone (Audio CD)

This album, like most great albums doesn't jump out at you right away saying, "I'm a Great Album." Instead it sort of weasels it's way into your mind until you realize that you haven't taken it out of your cd player in about two weeks. Then you leave it in for another two weeks, because you finally realize how great it really is.

The pace of this album is very slow, and the instrumentation is minimal. It's the type of thing you'd play to just wind down and relax. But honestly, it's hard to relax when you're hanging off of every word this guy is singing.

Bonnie Prince Billy, in my opinion, is this generation's Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen as far as lyrics go. His lyrics on this album are the type that you may not get right away, but when you do understand what he's talking about, you love the album even more. Every song on this album is fantastic. At first listen, a few tracks seem to stand out more than others (not that any of them are bad), but as this album gets into your heart, you realize that every track is essential to the one behind it and before, therefore creating what I call a great album.

So Will Oldham, if you are reading this, please never stop making music.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully austere, March 11, 2003

By 

Dash Amfleck (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master & Everyone (Audio CD)

Having long ignored Will Oldham's previous output due mostly to pursuit of music in other genres, but not immune to the seemingly endless stream of effusive critical praise he garners, I finally became overwhelmed with curiosity and decided to purchase one of his Bonnie "Prince" Billy albums. Most reviews of "Master and Everyone" cite "I See a Darkness" as Oldham's definitive artistic statement. Ultimately, I purchased both, and discovered they are very different albums, with very different merits to recommend them.

Having listened to both records several times now, I find myself far more impressed with this latest offering. "I See a Darkness" benefits from inspired contributions from talented collaborators, and the counterpoint Oldham creates between gloomy atmosphere and dark energy is terrific, as are the song structures and lyrics. Yet I believe "Master and Everyone" is a far more mature, intimate and above all else subtle piece of work. Perhaps not enough has been said about the production on this album. The gorgeous cello arrangement that underpins "The Way" serves as a lead for an album's worth of other austere and effective flourishes, including naked tambourine rasps, ghostly organ drones and even a well-placed accordian. These elements and others, together with the rich, sure quality of Oldham's voice, result in a work of tremendous control that is haunting and resonant.

It's been said that a great work of art is defined by how much of it you can remove without sacrificing its intensity. Lilting and refined, "Master and Everyone" is a sonorous study in perfect economy.