A line from opening track “Revenge” has Flaming Lip Wayne Coyne (continuing his current Pink Floyd aesthetic fixation) singing “I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart,” a lyric which, in light of the late Mark Linkous’ suicide by shooting himself in the heart this past March, could be read as a disturbing hint at his mental state when this album was put together in the last chapter of his life.
Then again, Mark Linkous never shied away from dark moods and themes in all his work leading Sparklehorse since 1995. That’s not going to stop a mini-industry from combing through the lyrics of this collaborative album between Linkous, producer Danger Mouse, director David Lynch, and a cast of singer-songwriter contributors, though, for hints of Linkous using this album as a proxy for the suicide letter he never left behind—the title itself refers to a spiritual crisis in Christian belief, albeit one that is meant to be temporary, not final.
Dissected as a musical whole, Dark Night is a triumph, if only for the fact that the voice of such a singular artist as Linkous is not lost to the other proverbial cooks in the kitchen (including Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop, Gruff Rhys, Suzanne Vega, the late Vic Chesnutt, Granddaddy/Admiral Radley's Jason Lytle, and previous collaborators Nina Persson and Shin/Broken Bell James Mercer from Danger Mouse’s rolodex).
Barring Black Francis’ incongruously heavy-handed clunker, this is a cohesive statement, bound by David Lynch’s mastery of atmosphere and realized by the ubiquitous but absolutely vital Danger Mouse, who is increasingly becoming better known for his rock productions than his hip-hop. The individual performances are mostly stunning and show different facets of each artist, most surprisingly with an unrecognizable Suzanne Vega taking a potentially career-resuscitating turn on the whispered/sung “The Man Who Played God,” one of my favourite tracks from this summer and a far cry from “Luka,” to be sure.
Shame that this album was tied up in legal limbo at the time of Linkous’ death; it’s the first Sparklehorse album to firmly capture my imagination. Now that it is out, you can choose from a variety of formats, but make sure to get one with the 100-page collection of photographs by David Lynch, intended as a “visual narrative” accompaniment to the music.