Rating:  -
Pleasant, but not all that original. The influences motivating this music are too easily discernable. The result is formulaic - albeit a much more complex formula than the vast majority of the drivel that passes for music.
Rating:  -
I love this haunting, melancholic album that draws you into a trance of nostalgia that you are unfamiliar with, if that makes any sense. I love the odd lyrics and the tranquil tunes juxtaposed with the rawness of distortion. Even so, the album still remains tranquil, and dreamy. It stimulates not only my sense of hearing, but all the senses with its state of dreaminess.
Its unlike any album that I have, and it has definately made me a Sparklehorse fan.
Rating: -
This album is soulful, well crafted, and freaking great. It's highly evolved elemental rock and roll. Mark Linkous' vocals are really beautiful and varied on this one. His imagery and themes are developed well. Crazy great harmonies by PJ Harvey and Sophie Michelitsianos break your heart wide open. Yup, freaking great.
Rating:  -
CDs cost a small fortune these days. Considering that there are a gajillion bands you can give your money to for entertainment, it will not do for an artist to have four decent tracks on a record and make the rest utterly insular and unlistenable. At least The Velvet Underground had great songs all the way through before they decided to tell the listener to get bent. I mean, that's all well and good if you aren't interested in what people think of your art, but from a consumer standpoint, that attitude alone does not make a good record. Especially, especially if you are going to be very depressed and request payment for someone to hear about it. Or worse, relate to it.
Sparklehorse's It's A Wonderful Life treads on very a thin ice of likeability, on the verge of falling through to the bottomless depths of suckitude. Admittedly, it has one great song. "Gold Day" evokes the Beatles during their most psychedelic and moody period, a dead ringer for the type of languid dream state conjured up in "Strawberry Fields Forever". A few other songs make an impression, clustered at the beginning of the album. Take the title track, for example. The irony is almost audible- perhaps that is the substance one hears, literally, bubbling and pulsing through the cracks of this song. Linkous is not a happy camper by a long shot, practically whispering lines like "I'm a bog of poison frogs"..."I'm full of bees who died at sea". I shudder at the thought of 16 year old emo kids cutting on themselves in their room while they listen to this type of misery/moping. It's happening somewhere. Anyway, PJ Harvey and Tom Waits show up to make two other songs on this record worth a listen or three. The rest is either forgettable or annoyingly dissonant. Lord knows Im a sucker for tape loops,backwards tracking and breaking away from traditional song structure for a nifty freakout but when that kind of stuff is the only thing holding a listener's interest, it can either make you go "whoa, that was neat, I just got goosebumps" or "ooh, that's ugly. Even I'm asking myself why I'm listening to this." Guess what happens more often on It's A Wonderful Life".
I'd put your money in better bands, or at least other albums by this artist. Sparklehorse is talented, but inconsistent here.
Rating: -
3 1/2
Beautiful, depressing slow-core at it's best, slightly jarring and disconnected at worst, "It's a Wonderful Life" captures artist Mark Linkous at his melancholic height, barely escaping the album's minimalistic haunted nature with the few less emotionally heavy rockers on here. While not for everyone who is into their forward momentum mentality, chill out with this alt rock gem when you want a nice shimmering slow ride into loneliness, and it's hopefully subsequent inspirations.
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