Domino Rec.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy : sings No More Workhorse Blues EP (US,2004)*** (vg)
Bonnie “Prince” Billie is one of the projects of Will Oldham’s Palace Music collective. For me their first album was one of the most successful, powerful, and very dark in some way but with clear expression. But Palace Music was suddenly releasing so many albums that after a while I lost track. A very strong point is Will’s slightly broken emotional voice, on the edge of a serious depression, refocusing everything through creativity. A weak point sometimes was that some inspiration was too much of the 'quick take' of an inspired moment. With enough luck and control it’s genius, but sometimes it cannot go deep enough and be musically structured without at least some roughness that most moments still have, even with all intentions of to be concentrated on the energy.
This EP shows concentrated ideas, not just for the direct action, but with seemingly thought over arrangements. “No more workhorse blues” is a different version of the song off the second B”P”B release, here with steel pedal or slide guitar, country violin and piano, with a slight 'reactive' country blues emotion to it. The two other tracks are predating future work. “Ruby” starting as a quiet hush expression, gets an new element I haven’t heard with Will Oldham before. It’s not only the modern production in the details, I also hear a heavy emotional outburst somewhere, almost "metal"-like. The last track, “The Kiss” has nice "rainy" guitar on the background. All three tracks have an underlying darkness, with some little colours shining true, just like the cover shows us. This little brightness provides enough expression, for the listener in a quiet mood.
There’s also added an additional video by Harmony Korine of the title track, “No More Workhorse Blues”. The label calls it themselves a “disturbing video”. I don’t know why ; I also don’t know why some of the so called almost schocking details are presented in it the way they are. I do like a lot the idea of looping these very short time movements, which make the video almost like a collection of pictures from a photobook.
