Beware

Bonnie Prince Billy

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: March 17, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Drag City
• ASIN: B001QIRSKA
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,554 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Breaking through the dirt and shooting upward into our atmosphere is a new variety of exotic Bonnie Prince Billy plant. Stronger. Stinkier. It blooms in low light and cold but thrives in the sun as well, showing enticing spots and eating small creatures as they wander into its jaws. They had it coming, they were weak...and you re next! Beware. Though Beware shares spit with its immediate predecessor, Lie Down in the Light, its reach is longer, its arches more grandiose. Where fiddle and steel contribute their rustic timbre alongside guitars and voices, a thickening thud of low tone rolls beneath, giving the record a bottom that s fun to watch bounce in new clothes. This indensifies the air and heralds Beware as Bonny s most ambidextrous record to date even more so than The Letting Go! A listen or two through and you too may conclude that this could also be the great Bonnie Prince Billy contempo-country record though, as always, the Prince goes his own special way, even when climbing the charts with brawny arms and classic titles like I Don t Belong to Anyone, You Can t Hurt Me Now, and I Am Goodbye.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Into The Light Out Of The Dark, March 18, 2009

By	K. H. Orton (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having lent an ear since the Bonnie Prince's Palace days, I have to confess I've fallen off the bandwagon of late. I still dutifully check in, but truth be told --- which of his albums have topped There Is No One What Will Take Care of You & I See A Darkness?

His albums always had their fair share of moments. Critics has often cited a lo fi mix of introspective Neil Young cut with an Apalachian echo of Leonard Cohen. At worst, it's been a turtle paced warble of esoteric ambiguities.

As prolific & impulsive as Oldham is, he has often proved himself to be equally erratic. As mellow as he can be, some are content to let him coast along business as usual. Personally, I've wondered what would happen if he put some oomph! into it & see what happens.

Well, am I'm happy to report that just what he's done here.

This is the Bonnie Prince's most refreshing, energetic & focused record to date. The sound of shaking the sleep off or to quote, I Don't Belong To Anyone, "time has come to lay childish things to the dirt".

Or perhaps the whole album is best summed up with the anthem, Life's Work: "I take this load on/it's my life's work/to bring you into the light/from out of the dark."

Kicking off with Beware Your Only Friend, with its backing chorus & cricketing fiddles, one gets the sense that he's thrown open the windows of a musty attic & let some fresh air in.

You Can't Hurt Me Now follows laced with a moody, vintage pedal steel. All of which makes this Oldham's most unabashedly Country record since Sings Greatest Palace Music. But where the Nashville stylings on Greatest came off as a bit too self-conscious, here things sound organic & genuine.

That said, the album's closer, Afraid Ain't Me ends things on an unexpected Psyche Folk Jazz fusion note that brings John Martyn's Solid Air to mind.

Elsewhere, playful touches of trumpet, flute & sax help make Beware one of the most musically diverse offerings in the Oldham catalogue.

Here is Oldham at his most accessible & joyful. A true stand out in a trend setting career that while prolific, on occasion seems willfully arbitrary.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music to hear again and again., March 26, 2009

By	I. Thompson (Maryland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I heard of this album on the radio, and liked the snippet they played, so decided to try the whole cd. I loved it the first time, and now that I've played it over and over and over again, I like it even more.

I like the twangy places, melodies of all the songs, rhythm...it's all just excellent. This was not the normal music I used to listen to, but I'm a fan now.....

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joyous!, March 23, 2009

By	E. Promis (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I must admit that before I gave this album a five star rating, I gave it about five listens from beginning to end. Each time it made my soul that much more satisfied, joyous, and expectant for the next go-round. A pleasure for new Billy fans as well as the 'ole Oldham crowd.