Musical collaborations can be a wonderful creative experience, both for the artist and consumer. A coming together of ideas from people already on top of their game, wishing to try something new with either peers or opposites, can bring great results and introduce fans to someone new in the process.
Where collaborations become a pain is when business interests become involved – those “…appears courtesy of…”s don’t always appear with the contract holders’ fondest regards or cheapest deals, or put the mockers on the whole project. Protracted legal wranglings prevented Dark Night Of The Soul from being released when it should have been, and now it stands as a sad epitaph to two people rather than being recognised purely for being a bloody good record.
The curious thing that brought me to this particular collaboration was neither of the two names at the top of the project, but of the inclusion of someone better known in other fields – anything with David Lynch’s name attached was always going to intrigue, and coupled with the album’s title an curious visuals, the temptation was too great to wait to see if the record-buying public would be permitted by someone in an expensive suit to listen to it. So I did what everyone else did last year (and what we were indeed encouraged to do) and purloined a copy from elsewhere, with the (now fulfilled) promise of buying it as soon as/if it ever became available.
The overall impression given by Dark Night Of The Soul, from the presentation of the accompanying artwork to the style of the credits is that of a soundtrack to a film that either doesn’t exist or that we have to create ourselves. This cinematic feel is further enhanced with the involvement of Italian-born composer (and someone who has worked with Danger Mouse previously) Daniele Luppi, whose string arrangements on Soulsavers’ similarly filmic Broken of last year gave such a great piece of work an extra level of orchestral polish.
Musically, it’s mostly lighter-hearted than the title and imagery would have one believe – the arrangements float nicely behind each guest, giving each vocalist all the room they need to bring their personalities and ideas to each song. The only departures for this model are the rockier efforts from Iggy Pop and Black Francis, whose songs (Pain and Angel’s Harp respectively) are shaped more by their sizable personalities than with the other tracks on offer here and so feel slightly unbalanced in comparison. Putting them both consecutively in the midst of the more pleasant dreamlike songs on offer does work though, offering a mid-album change of pace.
And ‘dreamlike’ is most certainly the watchword with DNOTS, as the one thing that ties every song together here is a sense of sharing each contributor’s dreams – the lyrics veer towards the abstract, almost nonsensical at times as if they’re writing down their final thoughts right before drifting off into sleep. It’s a feeling that runs right the way through the record and is no better depicted by the two outstanding songs on offer: David Lynch’s two contributions in the title track and especially on Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It) capture the dreamstate perfectly in turns both sinister and beautiful. Although on the sinister side, Lynch comes under very tough competition from Vic Chesnutt’s Grim Augury, lyrically and musically spiritually disquieting stuff indeed.
Given the amount of collaborative works out recently, Dark Night Of The Soul does well to carve its own niche amongst other recent great offerings from UNKLE and the Soulsavers, and it’s unfortunate that the belated release comes with a veneer of sadness now that Mark Linkous and Vic Chesnutt are no longer with us. Hopefully though, the critical success and word of mouth praise that Dark Night Of The Soul has received over the past year will translate into commercial success, and the light-heartedness that forms the majority of this album will balance out the sadness that is now attached to it.
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