I See a Darkness

Bonnie Prince Billy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 9, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Palace Records
• ASIN: B000066HI4
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,620 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

"Prince" Will Oldham has always threatened to make a completely devastating album and this is it. Brooding and strikingly intimate, I See a Darkness picks through the abandoned camps of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, finding lonely tales and ragged melodies strewn about. The magic comes in the light Oldham is able to shine on these songs, rendering them both gorgeously baroque yet starkly modern. --S. Duda

Product Description

Will Oldham's first Bonnie 'Prince' Billy release from 1999. Contains the classic 'I See A Darkness' covered by Johnny Cash.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SPOOKY GEM, November 10, 2004

By 

Stowaway (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I See a Darkness (Audio CD)

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (aka Will Oldham) creates the scariest take on country music imaginable. In fact, this could easily be labelled 'goth country'.

His lyrics are intensley personal and his voice a deep and dark wonder. His songs are carefully crafted and arranged in an obscure warmth and frailty.

On some occasions the songs creep along steadily, on others errupt into soaring climaxes of double tracked vocals on the brink of collapse. These climaxes don't play on the usual tricks of severe dynamic change or string sections, but rather involve escalations in emotive force that ripple through you.

Will Oldham is a master songwriter, and an expert at creating sound collages and textures not usually associated with country music.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this music will take your words from you, August 3, 2004

By 

Davy (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I See a Darkness (Audio CD)

one of the best albums....................ever. any genre, any era. my god, what a knock out. this is the latest musical persona of will oldham (whose illustrious career began as "palace/palace music/palace brothers") and many say it's his greatest achievement yet. i knew within ten seconds of first hearing this record that it had to be true. every song reaches in and squeezes the heart, gets all tangled up in your insides. you know what's great about this record? every single haunting track is memorable and affecting. every one. there isn't a single track that fades into the background...and that is a rare treat these days. and the fact that a tune as staggeringly vibrant as "a minor place" can co-exist so easily with smothering odes like "i see a darkness" is just amazing. it is, in many ways, like life.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of fragility, September 23, 2002

By 

el pirato - See all my reviews

This review is from: I See a Darkness (Audio CD)

Will Oldham combines soft and fragile melodies with atonal voices. He shows the beauty of error and the crushing power of tenderness.
Like almost everything that is "REALLY" good, you have to learn to appreciate this album. With every listening session there is something new that strikes you and slowly reveals the full beauty of this music.

This is a true jewel, in desperate need to be treasured.