Welcome aboard the sadness train. This maudlin ode to death and dust is like the slowest of Sebadoh’s songs mixed with a large dose of Smog on some sort of countrified, downer pill. Sparse is too big of a word to describe Will Oldham’s style. The closest adjective I can come up with is dirge. The stuff is like a slowly developing funeral in the Kentucky dustbowl. Oldham is nothing but sincere in his songwriting, though, and his voice always seems on the edge of sliding off into creaky shambles. This is some good Americana music that really strikes at the heart of sorrow and loneliness, and makes for a really interesting listen–if you can avoid killing yourself.
