Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town

(Domino)

‘Stop all the moaning and bemoaning your fate / god isn’t listening, or else it’s too late,’ sings Will Oldham on ‘Time to Be Clear’, his voice like driftwood lapping at the shore. In all things heart-shattering and beautiful in the world of alternative country the Bonnie Prince abides, and this latest collection is yet another understated marvel.

For most of the record his voice is accompanied by a lazy guitar strum and a breathy female backing vocal or two, so when a slow, hypnotic electric guitar chimes in on ‘Cows’ or the odd twanging, swamp-rock riff finds its way into ‘Quail and Dumplings’, the dissonance is startling. ‘We are unhappy,’ sings Oldham simply on the song of the same name, and the almost religious resignation in his voice is, as ever, utterly compelling.