Agree that itās very difficult to rate. A handful of truly incredible songs sprinkled amongst a sprawling body of work which is a mixture of turgid dross and so unrelentingly bleak it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Unless it is intentional and Iām just missing the joke.
Canāt miss an opportunity to post this absurd video of our man knocking around the West End of Glasgowā¦
I could repeat most of what has already been said ā¦ got Thereās No-One What Will Take Of You in the unlikely place of Cash Converters in Carlisle in the mid ā90ās and for at least a decade he was probably my favourite artist and there was rarely a day I wouldnāt listen to him. But the last essential album he did for me was The Letting Go in 2006.
Iāve voted Darkness as my favourite album - because sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one - but some of the EPs have his best material. The Blue Lotus Feet EP has
already been mentioned. And I could make a case for More Revery being his best release of anything heās done, definitively one of my all time favourites, 6 very wonderful covers:
Maybe telling that the things Iāve enjoyed him do most on the last 15 years are covers and collaborations. But for the good times, which donāt get much better, heās a massive 5.
Oh yeah, and his live experience is much like his discography. At his best heās just wonderful ( I used to collect bootlegs by him, and have some great ones somewhere in a box), but when he was bad it verged on the Cat Power levels of irritation.
On paper, should be totally up my street. Have tried with him a fair few times though and have totally bounced off him each one. Really feels like thereās something there, which is probably why I keep coming back, but heās never clicked. Really looking forward to this thread and some primers from people who know him well, as I reckon this could be the time
Agreed Iāve seen him several times, beginning at the Nottingham Narrowboat in 1993 on his first UK tour. I think the most enjoyable gig was in Holmfirth of all places on his tour with Trembling Bells - he really benefitted with having a band behind him.
Considering how much I like Bill Callahan and David Berman, itās a surprise I donāt like him more. Do think thereās just too many moody male acoustic/alt-folk style American singer songwriters and I havenāt got time for them all.
WHen he is good he is really good but there is just so much. I do adore him though.
Picked up I See A Darkness on record in my first year (late '99 maybe) purely for the artwork and title as i was a really cheery 18 year old. Fell in love obviously. Just couldnāt believe people were making music which sounded so old
Havenāt the time for a full post but that album still sounds incredible, and has stayed with me forever. It still feels as affecting as it did 23 years ago. Beautiful.
When i went backwards i really loved Arise Therefore, and Days in The Wake. Afterwards I thought Master and Everyone was great, and Lie down in the light, singers grave, and Best Troubadour were all very good albums.
Loved the superwolf ones also, and the Tortoise one has some ups and downs but the ups are amazing! Thunder Road, Daniel and Love is Love in particular.
The highs are a big old 5 but not sure i can give that for a career which has so much.
Also, sorry, but 1 point off considering he was in Trapped In The Closet.
When he was good he was really good - 5.
But then again, when heās bad heās terribly, terribly dull - 1.
So, looks like a 3 ā¦ canāt believe that I would give a 3 to someone who recorded I See a Darkness and what went before, and some of what came soon after. But all that seems so long ago now. I agree with so much of what has been written above. Seems like a DIS consensus. But we will all score that same view differently. So probably something like 3.76 at the end of the scoring day, right? Guess we will soon see ā¦
Pretty sure Iāve listened to him before and it sent me to sleep. Another white guy with a guitar who Iām sure is very good at what he does, but is unbearably dull. 1.
5 from me but got to ignore the fact he has a lot more bad stuff than good. The good stuff though is amazing and probably the artist that got me into everything else i went on to love.
Palace and late 90s/early 00s Bonnie albums are great. sort of lose interest a bit when it gets into the later stuff, although the recent Superwolves collab sequel was pretty decent.