Sparklehorse

"I'm full of bees who died at sea... I wore a rooster's blood... I'm a bog with poison frogs... It's A Wonderful Life."

Those sublime, subtle melodies; the memories and images they conjure; days in the backwoods, nights in the conservatory, garage and home studio, a child's discarded toy piano; the beauty beneath the bleeding and vice versa... The confluence of all of these elements in one musical voice could only mean one thing: a new Sparklehorse record.
It's A Wonderful Life is the third proper Sparklehorse album. Like its predecessors vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider, its enigmatic American Gothic imagery leaves you ever more enthralled with each listen. And now more than ever, in this day and age of Frankenstein-formulated disposable pop mannequins, It's A Wonderful Life is a true rarity: 40-odd minutes of subdued, mysterious beauty with no bent for world domination, rather a gentle touch that commands total attention and demands repeat listenings nonetheless.

"You've got diamonds for eyes/It's time for you to rise/and evaporate in the sun... May all your days be gold, my child."

It's A Wonderful Life is once again primarily the creation of Mark Linkous, who wrote, sang, played guitar, Wurlitzer, mellotron, Casio, optigan, samplers, drum machines and a host of other instruments throughout. Other contributors this time around include the ever-trusty-from-day-one Scott Minor on drums and various electronics, Good Morning Spider collaborator Sophie Michelitsianos, Jane Scarpantoni and Joan Wasser on strings, Tom Waits (who contributes one of the album's only co-writing credits to "Dog Door"), Polly Jean Harvey, Nina Persson... even co-producers/mixers Dave Fridmann and John Parish picked up an instrument or two.

Perhaps It's A Wonderful Life is the child referenced in so many of its lyrics ("Gold Day," "Babies On The Sun," "Little Fat Baby," though the latter borrows a few lines from Vic Chesnutt's "Myrtle"). Perhaps not.

"Can you taste the ghost?"

The road from vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider to It's A Wonderful Life has been a long and tortuous one, those days of 1995 seeming so long dead but the music and memories so alive. Vague recollections of "Painbirds," "Happy Man," "Sick Of Goodbyes," even "Someday (I Will Treat You Good)" piquing the collective curiosities of UK/Euro radio programmers, tours supporting Radiohead, sold out headline dates at various clubs and theaters worldwide... and it looks like it will all be replaying all too soon.

"Won't you come to comfort me?"
The title (and title track) It's A Wonderful Life could be a paean to the simplicities of Linkous' life in Enon, Virginia. So could "Apple Bed" or "More Yellow Birds." Who knows? Only thing for sure right now is it's time to uproot for a bit and saddle up the touring version of the 'Horse once more. This time, Mark has assembled his "new touring pop group" (his quote) of Margret White (violin, bass, keyboards), Al Weatherhead (guitar, pedal steel, keyboards), Kendall Meade a/k/a Mascott (keyboards, bass), and of course, Scott Minor (drums).

"I'm the dog that ate your birthday cake... It's A Wonderful Life."
Indeed it is... or maybe not.