Bonnie Prince Billy - A Sea of Tongues

Will Oldham has recorded music under many pseudonyms; Palace, Palace Music, Palace Brothers, Bonnie Prince Billy and even Will Oldham. He was responsible for the photo on the cover of Slint’s Spiderland. Maybe that’s just me. ANYway. This album is a rehash or ‘reimagining’ (blurg) of  the songs on Bonnie’s 2011 album Wolfroy Goes To Town, which was kind of a dreary affair, but great for lurking about on a Sunday afternoon. A Sea of Tongues has a jolly tiger on the front, and it’s certainly wilder than Wolfroy. Bonnie hasn’t veered far from his cherished Americana, but has ramped it up a notch, singing like a Grown Up Singer and acquiring some production and backing vocal people. It’s more mature, has a lighter touch and is more polished, which overall is great, except it means the songs lose some of their tender delicacy; songs such as Whipped lose the magic effect of the crescendo towards the end of the track when it’s all a bit more rambunctious. It’s more Country with a Capital C. This album is like when you read a diary entry from a few years back when you were heart broken, but now you can see that actually, it was probably for the best and hey, let’s just cheer up and get a cappuccino.