Track Listing

1. Minor Place
2. Nomadic Revery (All Around)
3. I See a Darkness
4. Another Day Full of Dread
5. Death to Everyone
6. Knockturne
7. Madeleine-Mary
8. Song for the New Breed
9. Today I Was an Evil One
10. Black
11. Raining in Darling

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282086 in Music
• Released on: 1999-01-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
"Prince" Will Oldham has always threatened to make a completely devastating album and this is it. Brooding and strikingly intimate, I See a Darkness picks through the abandoned camps of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, finding lonely tales and ragged melodies strewn about. The magic comes in the light Oldham is able to shine on these songs, rendering them both gorgeously baroque yet starkly modern. --S. Duda

Amazon.com
Will Oldham, the artist formerly known as Palace, has never been concerned with creating pop music. Oldham's forte, murder ballads, antispirituals, dead-sea chanteys, and lost-love songs, has always been "difficult," forcing the listener to confront some rather unseemly topics. Say this about Oldham, however, despite his quirks (cracking vocals, shambolic instrumentation, baroque language), at its best, his music is bracing and, often, very beautiful. That said, I See a Darkness, his second LP since abandoning the Palace moniker, is the most accessible, gorgeous, and moving record of his career. Instead of the gothic, low-fi country feel of many of his projects, Darkness comes off sounding like an early-'70s Neil Young album, comprised of a stately piano backbone and fleshed out by loose-fitting guitar strums. Stylistically, Oldham mixes things up on Darkness and his full band sounds, for once, well practiced and well recorded. Sure, Oldham is still singing about the blackness of his soul, but in between--in small bursting moments--there are bits of light, hope, and a suggestion that maybe--just maybe--there may be redemption through love. That message, presented in these carefully constructed, gently offered songs, pushes this recording beyond the usual, curious appeal of Oldham and into an entirely new realm of greatness. S. Duda

Customer Reviews

File under Masterpiece
Attracted by the hideous cover in combination with the word Palace made me push the button on the listening pole.

After 20 seconds I knew enough to buy this record.

Coming home I realised this was brain meltingly beautiful. Believe me, artists like Neil Young and Van Morrison are praying each night that they could once more make an album like this. Just once and then die.

If you're getting fed up with all the average releases in the past 18 months, with one or two nice songs, no consistency, dollarsigns in the eye, etc. Try this. They still come out: classics.

No genre (please reviewers, don't try , please don't try), no influences, no relation, just the music.

Here's an artist that is able to laugh at and exploit his own blues. The ultimate bipolar person.

I would give a finger if somebody told me I could never hear the title song "I see a darkness" again.

Music is not larger than life, but it is with scaringly beautiful melodies like this and the mess you see around you that you know: it would not harm if it was.

And anyway, the best songs on this album make you feel music and love are larger than life.

If Shakespeare would have put songelements like "Death to everyone is gonna come" in his plays, they would now be famous lines. So how about it in 1999???????????????/

Why do autumn albums like these always come out in spring?

PS I am very interested to know which CD's the reviewer who gave this album three stars would rate five stars. Either this would be sufferers where the talent has gone out or never been in or secret music I've never heard of. Please tell me, I would buy all of it, sight unseen!

Hopeful, Sad, and Extremely Beautiful
This is my first review of a Will Oldham/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. I chose to review this album first because I think it's simply my favorite in his catalog that I've heard.

I would say that 90 percent of this album sounds exactly like my thoughts throughout a normal day. It's sadly beautiful and hopeful simultaneously. "I See A Darkness" is the type of song that makes you want to reflect on life and your inner thoughts. It's an ode to life.

These songs are sung with such heartfelt beauty and passion that's almost immeasurable to compare this with any other artist. Will shares a lot of his thoughts and feelings with us in his music. He has a "no-holds barred" approach that is sure to catch any listener's attention.

All the songs on this album are part of something bigger. One listen and you'll know that you've found an album with integrity and purity. It will probably get you through a lot of times in your life if you allow it to. Either way, this will be an album that you will not soon forget.

"Death To Everyone" is one of the most powerful tracks on this album. It also happens to be one of my favorites as well. If it absolutely doesn't pierce your soul, you may not have even been listening and don't deserve to go any further with this album. I would assume that most fans have heard Will's other work and most put this at very least towards the top. Oldham has really paved a path for what he wants to get across in his music. I would venture to say that people will study this work for many years to come.

If you've heard of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Will Oldham or are intrigued by what you've heard about him in general, this is definitely an album you should check out. Of course, he's got so many I guess you could start anywhere. Are any of them bad? No. My opinion would be to start here. If you don't become instantly fond of this work, you may not need to get anything else by him.

Deeply Moving
A beautiful album. I can never get over how Will's horrible voice can always, and I mean always, touch me in a place that few singers have.