Spitball Army

Tonight I am shuffling papers and listening to Sparklehorse, and remembering Mark Linkous – whose music I only slightly know.  In fact, I only know one Sparklehorse album well, and that album is 2006’s Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain.  I find that I keep replaying the album’s last track.  Over and over and over.  All ten minutes and 35 seconds of it.  It is haunting, and soothing in a numbing sort of way – like those five to ten minutes between feeling the onset of sleep and passing out altogether.

In its review of the album, Stylus Magazine‘s Barry Schwartz wrote:

Dreamt for Light Years isn’t lacking an unabashed heart of darkness. The album culminates with its eleven minute title track, consisting of a simple grieving piano melody above minor tremolo chords and subtle breathing atmospherics. It may suggest a vegetative patient on life support or, if we are to take this title literally, a mountain dweller in the REM stage, but without a single uttered word it manages to evoke the depths of Linkous’ abyss. It’s depression, abuse, dependence, addiction, and right back to depression again. Why has it been five years since the last album? This is why.

Read Schwartz’ full review here…

…while you listen to the sublime instrumental below:
[audio:Sparklehorse___Dreamt_for_Light_Years_in_the_Belly_of_a_Mountain.mp3]
“Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain” (2006), by Sparklehorse