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Track Listings
| 1. Love Comes To Me |
| 2. Strange Form Of Life |
| 3. Wai |
| 4. Cursed Sleep |
| 5. No Bad News |
| 6. Cold & Wet |
| 7. Big Friday |
| 8. Lay And Love |
| 9. The Seedling |
| 10. Then The Letting Go |
| 11. God's Small Song |
| 12. I Called You Back |
| 13. Bonus Track 1 |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Having long recorded as Palace Music or Palace, the enigmatic, elusive Bonnie "Prince" Billy continues to confound musical expectations. His latest may well be his loveliest, a series of meditations and tone poems on love and mortality, with the autumnal strains of a chamber quartet and the vocal counterpoint of Dawn McCarthy supporting Billy's tremulous expression of his surreal, stream-of-consciousness lyricism. Results range from the dreamy, bluesy "Cursed Sleep" and the evocation of a British madrigal on "No Bad News" to the discordant propulsion of "The Seedling" and the call and response of the folkish "Then the Letting Go." It all fits together in a manner that defies categorization and dares the listener to resist its aural seduction. --Don McLeese
Product Description
The Letting Go is an overwhelming undertaking. As mentioned, there are strings lovely charts that do so much more than just trace chord changes up and down the neck. Arrangements by Ryder McNair and Nico Muhly are threaded throughout the record, augmenting a simple quintet players to provide a sixth sense. The deceptive nature of his band is on display from the top. Filthy Jim White is known far and wide for his resource behind the drum kit and he proves it song after song, with sensitivity that provokes dynamic variety from skins, an acoustic depth to the room. Paul Oldham's bass is a feeling accompaniment to Bonny's guitar, played with brotherly clairvoyance and constancy. Young Emmett Kelly's clean electric guitar lines roam within the web and suddenly shine, are blues and folk and r'n'b in shifting turn, guilelessly tactic and soulfully expressive. And up front with Bonny is the bewitching Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables. Her vocal flights on those records can hardly prepare one for the intimacy and empathy of her harmonies and other voices on The Letting Go.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This might be the best CD that has come out this year. It may be Will Oldham's best CD since "Viva Last Blues." It may be better than "Viva Last Blues" although these are two different styled CDs. "The letting go" has a mostly very mellow sound. Almost every song is beautiful. The string and guitar melodies are uplifting. Will Oldham's voice is grounding, it is the familiar voice you have heard for the past decade or so. Dawn McCarthy's voice will then again lift you up. McCarthy's voice is a fantastic companion to Oldham's. Other singers/bands have tried to use a female voice to echo or accompany the lead vocal and it has often become irritating. This is not the case with "the letting go," McCarthy's accompaniment adds so much to the album but without taking away from Oldham. I haven't listened to a Will Oldham album since "Ease down the Road." This makes me want to go back and listen to those albums I have missed. One song in particular, "The Seedling" (I believe) has a different sound than the rest of the album. It has a harsher sound, but is still a good song.
This is a great introduction if you are new to Oldham or if you are returning listener.
This is a great introduction if you are new to Oldham or if you are returning listener.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Letting Go has more than its fair share of hauntingly, achingly beautiful moments. It may be a cliche at this point to use the words "haunting" and "aching" in a review of Will Oldham's music, but music like this defies easy description (as Oldham's lyrics avoid easy, literal narratives), being so unlike anything out there. These songs evoke exquisitly beautiful emotional landscapes composed of memory, dreams, longing, desire, regret, hope, composed in lyrics hinting at the subconscious desires, fears, and haunted dreams of each song's voice. The music itself traverses many musical lands, sometimes within the same song, recalling bleak Nordic vistas (mainly), the Southern delta, and even Renaissance England. The instruments, almost entirely acoustic (with the exception of electric guitar), are perfectly suited to the songs, with a heavy emphasis on strings (guitar, violin, cello) that pair perfectly with the tremor in Oldham's voice. Will Oldham is obviously not satisfied to travel down musical roads already well mapped out. Thankfully, since in pursuit of his experimental muse he has taken himself, and us his listeners, to some strange and gorgeous places. It is a shame that one or two reviewers with an adolescent appreciation of music can alter the number of stars a work like The Letting Go receives overall, but in any case it is only an Amazon review. This music doesn't need any other affirmation other than its own inherent qualities. It speaks for itself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
More layered and involved than "Master and Everyone" (my only other Bonnie 'Prince' Billy), "The Letting Go" is a beautiful and sometimes haunting work, masterfully blending folk, pop, country, and blues. Lyrically, he's gone off the deep end (not a complaint!) since "Master": I love the way he sees dead people flying in the sky in the opening lines of "Love Comes to Me"--or maybe he just senses the souls of the dead on the wings of birds. Throughout the album his lyrics tend toward surrealistic and stream-of-consciousness imagery. It took me a couple of listens before I figured out that "The Seedling" (should have been clue!) is primarily about a sex act--so obscure is method of addressing it. Oh--and the music's first-rate, too. For me, "Cursed Love" and "Lay and Love" are the finest tracks, the former opening with a gorgeous melange of guitar and strings, the latter making use of an intriguing synthesized drum sound. What a wise choice bringing in the sublime Dawn McCarthy for accompanying vocals! "The Letting Go" wouldn't have been nearly as emotive without her considerable talent. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy himself plays the part of the definitive love bard, exhibiting sheer genius in describing the topsy-turvey experience of being in love. One is forced to assume that between "Master" and "The Letting Go" he'd switched lovers. I mean, he's completely whipped in these grooves; though, for the most part, he manages to avoid conveying it in a treacly, disgusting manner. (Well, "I Called You Back" does border on the insipid--and it's the only somewhat wearying song here.) There's a final 'hidden' track (very hidden), a loose, meandering affair that nevertheless wraps up the album quite nicely.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
dreamy
as i am, i consider this one of my greats. i've met will, pre-gig, but we had nothing to say. my ipod is usually a toss-up between him, jack johnson and sam beam. Read more
Published 28 days ago by a friend
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnifico
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy reste, avec cet album, l'un des songwriter les plus innovant et exigent de ces deux dernières decennies. Auteur (acteur ? Read more
Published on November 25, 2010 by Mazoué
3.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly strong
3 1/2
Unusually effective outing for an artist I generally find highly overrated and compositionally weak.
Unusually effective outing for an artist I generally find highly overrated and compositionally weak.
Published on February 16, 2010 by IRate
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant (As always, Will Oldham after all)
Great music. Once Oldham gets a hold on ya, there's no turning back. I recommend a second listen to many of his songs to find the gold. Read more
Published on November 14, 2008 by Ricardo Gardeazabal
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous, only a couple of songs short of greatness
This album sounds great to me, I don't even mind Dawn McCarthy's accompanying vocals - they fit the context of these songs perfectly for me. Read more
Published on April 28, 2008 by L. Sewell
4.0 out of 5 stars
This Album is Really Good!
The Letting Go is a must for fans of the 'Bonnie' Prince, and is a true gem in his highly impressive catalog. Read more
Published on November 15, 2007 by Jboogie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just as Cave
A gorgious record. Oldhams music is becoming mature, aged like wood or spirit. A true treasure and one not to be missed unless you care nothing for poems. Read more
Published on May 30, 2007 by Jack Orion
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chill
if you like the really chill BPB stuff, this one is for you. However, there are none of the rockin' type ones, so yeah good stuff
Published on April 6, 2007 by J. McCartney
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inevitable, as if it grew out of the ground...
This CD is for me, Will Oldham's finest thus far as a solo artist. It has all the sleepy, druggy quality you expect from him, but the backing vocals here provide a crystalline,... Read more
Published on February 9, 2007 by Artie Fisk
5.0 out of 5 stars
No one else is writing songs like this...
While this disc is not as good as "I See a Darkness" (certainly a member of the proverbial "deserted island disc list"), "The Letting Go" is terrific. Read more
Published on January 21, 2007 by Jeffrey T. Duda
