Sparklehorse – Bird Machine – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Something we never thought we’d hear – a new Sparklehorse album.  Put together by his brother and sister-in-law from 14 unreleased songs Mark Linkous was working on at the time of his death in 2010, they brought in producer Alan Weatherhead and one or two musicians such as Jason Lytle from Grandaddy and Linkous’ nephew Spencer.  Like all Sparklehorse albums, it lurches back and forth between distorted rockers, sweet-sounding ballads and eerie stripped-down folk.  Linkous liked to throw in a bit of static here and there, there’s slightly less than usual on this album.

The tracks are fairly brief, nothing outstays its welcome.  Sub two-minute scratchy rocker It Will Never Stop is followed up by Kind Ghosts and Evening Star Supercharger, Linkous style sweet ballads.  O Child is a fragile piano ballad which sounds like it’s barely there, topped off with a droning coda.

Further into the album, there are more sweet ballads (Falling Down, Hello Lord), crazed, harsh rockers (I Fucked It Up) and brittle folk (Scull of Lucia).  Daddy’s Gone has a Beatles-style chorus “I woke up and all my yesterdays were gone”.  Atypically, there’s a faithful, almost swaggering cover of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians’ Listening to the Higsons.  The experimental side of Linkous is present on the penultimate track, guitar instrumental Blue.

A fine job has been done here by all concerned to bring these songs to a wider audience.  The album is certainly fit to stand alongside any other Sparklehouse album released while Mark Linkous was alive.  Although there’s always the worry of exploiting a musician’s death when posthumous material is released, this couldn’t be accused of being a cash in.  Just a lovely gift for the fans to have one last Sparklehorse album.

Evening Star Supercharger