
While the title track to Bonnie "Prince" Billy's 1999 masterpiece, I See a Darkness, might be a benchmark of downcast songwriting, Will Oldham is now directing our gaze away from the abyss with a lively, re-imagined arrangement of the once-bleak number. Recorded by Steve Albini, (a common collaborator on Bonnie's earlier output), "I See a Darkness" 2012 finds a buoyant groove in Oldham's sparse original, thanks largely to his backing band over the past few years: Ben Boye, Van Campbell, Emmett Kelly, Danny Kiely, and Angel Olsen. Add the contrast of director Ben Berman's black and white photography against an off-kilter [...]