sparklehorse

Sparklehorse
King Tut’s, Glasgow
3 stars

Mark Linkous, the creative force behind the revolving line up of Sparklehorse, has a back story that takes in a full range of addiction and health problems, resulting in a relatively sparse catalogue. Four albums in the eleven years is hardly prolific; the five years since his last and best, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is positively lethargic.

It is more the pity that the momentum it generated has dissipated, and instead of building on it with the current release (‘Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly Of A Mountain’), Linkous is using these dates to revisit some dark places he inhabited in the mid nineties.

Those expecting the deft but bleak pop that makes up the new album have to make do with a few rations of which ‘Ghost In the Sky’ stands out. Elsewhere, it is monochromatic, static and brooding, with only the beauty and lyrical images of the songs to compensate for a lifeless performance.

Bookended by ‘Spirit Ditch’ and ‘Homecoming Queen’ from his debut, ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’, 1995 is also revisited for ‘Saturday’ and the still excellent ‘Sad and Beautiful World’. It makes for a peculiar dynamic, which appears to be somewhat lacking.

The missing dimension could be the string players who have featured in previous line-ups, but more likely Linkous’ vision is cramped by small venues and budgets. Though his music is in an American tradition that draws heavily on Dylan & The Band, Tom Waits and Gram Parsons, it appears to be striving for a place beyond the sum of its parts, but never quite attaining it.

The 2006 incarnation of Sparklehorse is, therefore, surprisingly regressive, offering a mildly generic brew of Americana, which neither lives up to the recent records or spacious beauty of previous shows at the same venue.