Search - Palace Music :: Arise Therefore

Scott J. from SEATTLE, WA
Reviewed on 7/23/2015...

Will Oldham, aka Palace Music, has a fairly diverse catalog that's mostly sad music. This is an average album, not one of his finest, and doesn't seem to have much flow.

Recline and arise

Scooter | Washington, DC USA | 03/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wish I had the patience to review every Will Oldham record. The man knows how to write a song. Were there a lyricist's word for prose poetry, it would be a good way to describe the form, I think. Oldham has a captivating narrative style, the way he combines words, the surprised in the middle of an anecdote, suddenly brutal or sexual. And such charming, funny titles, which may or may not have anything to do with the songs.



Half of the songs I'm not confident I understand, but I think it's like trying to understand an abstract painting. The undestanding comes in being somewhat passive to the song. I love this particular record because of its consistent mood: heavy, pensive, seductive. No big drum crashes or guitar solos. The words hang like smoke. Spread out against the bong water stains and hit play."

Accidental Hero

Jo K. Oats | London | 04/10/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like this album. It is good.



Yes apparently, despite not being an ahem, particularly good musician, Will Oldham somehow (how? how?) has managed to create fragile yet effective and emotionally resonant music. Wow, quite something for someone who is not a musician (presumably making music is not quite enough to make someone a musician...) So, how could an amateur who apparently doesn't know enough about song forms possibly have made music that was moving and made one think etc? Perhaps it was luck, a full moon, ANYTHING except the skill of the artist. Here's a bombshell: when art has an effect on you, it is because someone has spent a very long time, thinking very hard to make something very specific. Then, the traces of effort, the signs of the artist's hand usually have to be disguised, to enhance the power of the work in question: (books, music painting etc). The effect is not an accident (and yes I know all the Death of the Author stuff....) Here's another bombshell; maybe Will Oldham knows more than it sounds like he does, and maybe his songs are indeed full of intertextual references, walking the line between knowing and referential and using a rustic and homespun aesthetic for a purpose? To put it another way, when you watch a magician do a trick, do you credit "magic" or the performer's skill in creating the effect?"