Dark Night of the Soul

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) have apparently  teamed up with direct David Lynch to release an album.  The initial idea was for the album to be released packaged with a series of photos taken by Lynch.  But due to a some indisclosed legal issues with EMI, for the time being, the album will be released as the booklet of photographs along with a blank recordable CD-R that will be labled as such: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”   Hopefully they will get these unfortunate issues worked out soon so they can release the record for all to hear.  Until then, you can go to NPR for an “Excluse First Listen.”  I listened to the album once through and it was definitely dark and haunting.   But it was also very beautiful and multifaceted.  This album was able to evoke a plethora of emotions in me in just a 45 minute span.

Although Danger Mouse and Linkous were the brains behind this project and did the bulk of the songwriting, they weren’t without help.  Dark Night of the Soul is filled with many vocal guest stars, including The Flaming Lips, Black Francis, James Mercer of the Shins, Iggy Pop and more.  One of the highlights of the album for me was actually one of the more chipper and lighthearted tracks, “Daddy’s Gone,”  sung by Linkous and Nina Persson of The Cardigans.  But there was hardly a song I didn’t enjoy. So head  on over to NPR and check it out.