I See A Darkness
by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

I don;t think it's so much an album about the end of times as it is a study of the human soul in an enviorment without the artificial conviencies of modern society to distract us. It's a stark, thorny album that never gives you the pat on the shoulder we all seem to eventually be asking for, but it says so much in so many different ways about a topic as weighty as the human condition and without any of the superficially flamboyant gothic flourishes or easy sense of closure that's often prevelant in similar, lesser albums of this ilk. Really it's Will Oldham's songwriting that makes this unforgettable, his plain reading of the oft-bleak lyrics making it all the more poignant. And terrifying. I See a Darkness is just something truly special, even if we need a giant pick-me-up after it's over.

From buzzdainer TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/29/2016 14:16 | #173700 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Like many not-so-savvy music listeners, I didn't become fully aware of Will Oldham's greatness as a songwriter until I heard Johnny Cash's devastating version of the title track from this album. That's partly because I had written off Oldham after being unimpressed with some of the deliberately out-of-tune cutesiness of his work with his various incarnations with "Palace" in the name (Palace, Palace Music, Palace Brothers, etc.). But this album is terrific. It still has some of the shaggy-dog earnestness of his earlier work, but with an added maturity and just plain better singing. The title track is desperately beautiful, of course, and so is the distortion-driven, seafaring dirge "Madeleine-Mary."

This is probably my favorite album at the moment. There's a detachment through most of the album that makes Billy's despair somehow uplifting. Then "Raining in Darling" makes you need to listen to the whole thing again.

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/17/2013 04:50 | #65306 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I really dig this record. It's really dark and subtle. It's hard to think of an album in my collection that is better at communicating that deep deep dread and darkness in our hearts. Sounds depressing, and it is, but beautiful an gloriously well done as well.

I think Will Oldham is way overrated in general, and most of his albums are some pretty mediocre pseudo-folk/pseudo-country, but this album in particular is pretty good. The only Oldham album I've liked enough to put on my iPod.