Master & Everyone

Bonnie Prince Billy - Master & Everyone

Master & Everyone
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Bonnie Prince Billy
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-01-28
Music Label: Drag City
Soundtracks:
  1. The Way
  2. Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?
  3. Master and Everyone
  4. Wolf Among Wolves
  5. Joy and Jubilee
  6. Maundering
  7. Lessons From What's Poor
  8. Even If Love
  9. Three Questions
  10. Hard Life

Free Music Notes for Master & Everyone

Free Music Review: Grows on you slowly
Hit: 5 Stars

I loved 'Ease Down the Road' and saw Oldham live about a year after that album came out. When I heard 'Master and Everyone' was due for release, I grabbed it at first opportunity. I put it in my CD player and I was immediately disappointed. It seemed to be a flatter, less varied affair than 'Road', so I put it away and decided to wait for either his next tour (Oldham's amazing live) or album.

A few months ago, I decided to toss a majority of my music collection onto my computer at work. I had to buy a new hard drive to do so, as I have amassed well over 1,000 CDs. I use iTunes and often just switch on the random feature in order to make things a little more interesting. One day, while iTunes was jumping through the tracks in my library, it stumbled upon 'Maundering', a track off 'Masters and Everyone'. I liked it and decided to give the album another chance.

'Masters' is a very subtle collection of songs, its greatness veiled in both Oldham's quiet approach and unwavering tempo. But repeated and focused listens reveal melodies, harmonies, and lyrical gems that will stick the songs in your head. The choral melody on 'Wolf Among Wolves' is pretty perfect. It's got an emotional and musical impact that's moving without being forced. The quiet, somber tone that Oldham delivers on 'Masters' works with his voice -- a voice that's been tamed over the years. Gone are the deliberate bad notes and voice cracks (which weren't without charm -- just a little bit too stylistically motivated) of his Palace days. His voice is controlled and mature without seeming dull in that AOR sort-of way. So, in essence, what made Beck's last album an awful, contrived-for-critical-praise bore fest makes Oldham's 'Masters' work. Oldham's been working toward this for a while and his soul oozes out of every song, whereas Beck's soul seemed afraid to leave the house on the day he decided to record 'Sea Change'.

The last thing I'd like to offer is this: some of you will find this album boring and/or not worth it. That's OK. I'm pretty sure I would have intensely disliked this album in college, but now that I'm older, I appreciate subtlety and substance over style. Gone are the days when Jon Spencer's calculated 'soul'-howls got me into a song. To those who say 'Masters' is pretentious or favors style, I'd ask you to listen again. It's a pretty amazing collection of songs that requires attention, but also delivers on the attention paid.

Master & Everyone Poster

3rd album from the subtle & quirky singer/songwriter. Palace/Drag City. 2003.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, a.k.a. Will Oldham, is no ordinary bard. His writing, which can call to mind 19th-century American poets like Walt Whitman, has won him a cult of fans that include Marianne Faithfull, Björk, and Beck. Master's painfully fragile intensity is disconcerting and challenging, yet its purity and tenderness is soothing all the same. Dark, intimate, and sparsely arranged, it's a loose, meditative concept record that explores issues of gender, self, and love. Here Oldham trades in his familiar warble for a hushed, clear high tenor and a rock band for his acoustic guitar; ever-so-soft strings and keyboards warm up the arrangements while he is backed by Marty Slayton's sweet, feminine harmonies. Lyrically less dense than previous releases, Master does retain Oldham's typically quaint phrasings, as in "Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?" and "Joy and Jubilee." With a few listens, these 10 oddly gentle songs will endear themselves, and perhaps prove Master to be Oldham's best and most personal work to date. --Jillian Steinberger

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