Artist: Danger Mouse & Sparkhorse & David Lynch

Album: Dark Night of the Soul

David Lynch sings!

I'm not going to bury the headline-- the headline is that David Lynch sings (and has a surprisingly nice voice). The concept-- Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse co-write and co-produce a set of songs (with a impressive group of collaborators), and David Lynch supplies photography. And sings!

Finished in 2009, this sat in development hell for a while. Sparklehorse died in the interim-- his fingerprints are all over most of the tracks, in all sorts of odd and vaguely threatening textures overlaid everywhere.

If you've seen Lynch interviewed, or act on Twin Peaks (if you haven't, do), you'll get more out of it, but even if you haven't, his contribution is astounding. The rest is a mix of standardish indie rock with weird textures and some harsher stuff.

PLAY: Track 7 and 13, featuring Lynch. There's quite a bit more to like, but these two tracks are INCREDIBLE.


1. FCC: “fuckers” [Feat. Flaming Lips] Strained high voices with oddly subdued strings and organ accompaniment. (4:54)

2. * [Feat. Gruff Rhys] Bouncy, with whiny vocals, gains deepness of sound at bridge, a neat effect. Ends with whistling. (3:44)

3. [Feat. Jason Lytle] Fluttering distorted backbeat (processed applause?) Plodding but effective vocals, about a sports star or something. (3:52)

4. * FCC: a glancing “shit” [Feat. Julian Casablancas] Minimalist guitar intro, vaguely Latin drive, really swings, with fuzzy sounds in back, occasional blips, creating a swirling sound. Fuzzes out to death at the end. (4:32)

5. FCC: He says “Plucking” repeatedly in the most ambiguous manner possible. [Feat. Black Francis] Yeah, this one kind of sucks. Good background texture, but everything else sounds like a steakhouse rendition of heavy-ish '70s rock. (2:55)

6. * [Feat. Iggy Pop] Vaguely operatic tone in Iggy's voice-- hairy wall of guitar in back, with plucked piano graces and harps and whatnot. Driving art-punk-- it's severe, but oddly delicate. Ends in a Velvet Underground meltdown. (2:51)

7. ******** [Feat. David Lynch] David Lynch sings in sweet yelps, minimalist (very minimalist) ballad with an antique sound, the texture imitates the hiss of an old, old record (but with more depths) with chimes and soupcans. It's slow and inevitable and completely freaking heartbreaking. (3:10)

8. * FCC: “Fucked up” [Feat. Jason Lytle] Vaguely Balkan, a slowly rotating dance with woozy little touches in the air and damaged double-tracked vocals. (3:11)

9. * [Feat. James Mercer] This is essentially Broken Bells (Danger Mouse + Shins frontman), but Sparklehorse adds a bunch of garbling in the front that makes it tons more interesting. Obsolete and touching synth-string-solo near end. Ends with bellhop bell being run until eternity. (3:10)

10. * [Feat. Nina Persson] Sparklehorse sings alongside Cardigans singer-- acoustic sunshine, with a numinous cloud of death hanging behind everything (though very subtly). (3:08)

11. [Feat. Suzanne Vega] Sweet vocals by Vega, not the most interesting song, but charming organwork and sweet harmonies-- the production gets a little bendy towards the end, in a good way. (3:09)

12. * [Feat. Vic Chestnutt] Another guy who died in the interim-- song-speaking about knifes and carving and …. it's all unsettlingly matter-of-fact, with wobbly electric blanket of sound in back.(2:31)

13. ******** [Feat. David Lynch] Walking blues backbeat, as played by a Casio in a half-remembered nightmare. Lynch is drenched in reverb, cobwebbed in a pit of crackle. The sound falls in upon itself, Lynch, in yelps, half-scats about “shadows moving” and “losing [his] baby” and the titular “dark night of the soul.” Knelling bells, a fog of film noir death-- this is as atmospheric and deeply unsettling as anything Lynch has made. (4:40)

-Hervey Okkles