Release Date: Oct 19, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Drag City
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Songs of Love and Horror from Amazon
Near the end of a recent show in Brooklyn, Will Oldham brought the room to silence. He stepped to the foot of the stage to sing "Careless Love," a nearly a cappella track from 2001's Ease Down the Road. Now played with a seven-piece band but sung without a microphone, what was once a hushed prayer became powerful enough to fill the theater. The moment captured what, nearly three decades into his career, might have become Oldham's defining quality: He can really sing.
In a 2003 promo interview, Will Oldham explained his multi-moniker approach as a way to 'allow both audience and performer a relationship with the performer that is valid and unbreakable.' Okay. I'm sure there are some diehard Oldham/"Prince"/Palace fans out there who'll take exception to this, but I don't give a shit. I agree that the performer-audience and performer-self relationships are complex, and I understand the desire to differentiate one project from another.
is available now