Amid despair come songs of survival

July 12, 2010

A dark night of the soul is not a place you want to be. Steeped in religious connotations, it’s a poetic metaphor for moments of despair and desolation. It’s also a perfect name for the new album from producer Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, which is finally being released after legal limbo shelved it last year. It was worth the wait.

As much as “Dark Night of the Soul’’ hinges on its creators’ vision, the album comes to life through its collaborators. The Flaming Lips, the Shins’ James Mercer, Suzanne Vega, and Vic Chesnutt (who, like Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, also took his life not long ago) spin “Dark Night of the Soul’’ as a compelling meditation on survival.

This is a Danger Mouse production through and through. Songs manage to sound both icy and organic, warm one moment (“Everytime I’m With You’’) and aloof the next (“Revenge’’). Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas keeps his deadpan delivery and jangly guitar intact on “Little Girl.’’ Iggy Pop unleashes his laconic croon on “Pain’’ in a charge of dueling electric guitars. And “Angel’s Harp’’ frames Black Francis as a depraved blues singer who just slithered out of a junkyard.

David Lynch, whose photographs provide the album’s artwork, is the wild card here. The filmmaker cuts an enigmatic presence on “Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It).’’ On the title track, his reedy voice is buried in a gauze of static like some sort of warped lullaby you’d hear in one of his movies. When the distortion suddenly drops out, the song suddenly lives up to its name — it’s both dark and soulful. (Out tomorrow)

JAMES REED

ESSENTIAL “Dark Night of the Soul’’

READER COMMENTS »

View reader comments » Comment on this story »