Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

Album review

Despite his many semantic disguises, singer-songwriter Will Oldham,  a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, has always looked on his cracked folkiness and devout Americana as a mission from a higher power—not a conventional form of omnipotence but a very personal calling. Fortunately, Oldham has learned to write better, more complete and inviting songs. In "Behold! Be Held!" he even taps into joy reminiscent of the best Cat Stevens. He's lost the creakiness in his voice that once made his music a little too amateurish and unfinished. While there are still unsure flashes as when he slips in and out of pitch in "Willow, Pine and Oak," Oldham's singing now ably supports his lyrics. His gift for words, his most potent attribute, still have harrowing, almost supernatural moments as in "Trees of Hell," where mother nature takes swift and brutal revenge: "One tree ripped my stomach out/ One sprout tore my eyes out/ Blowing branches whipped and tore the skin from off my back/ They held at bay the mourners/ Kept away the worm/ Made provisions for a sense of everlasting lack." Sonically, the main thrust is a very close miking of his voice and enunciation of words; the ideas they speak of can be clearly understood. The acoustic opener, "Like It or Not," is done with the help of local music educators from Louisville, Kentucky, who are present throughout Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You. It's a noble gesture by Oldham to include experienced talents like the violinist Sara Louise Callaway, who directs the Louisville Academy of Music, and mandolinist Dave Howard who heads the Louisville Folk School. As tasteful as these accompanists are, what makes this collection a particularly strong entry in Oldham's long and varied discography are, unsurprisingly, his words.  From "Queens of Sorrow": "Why then queens of sorrow and not monarchs of joy? Why celebrate the sadness of every man and boy? Here we'll tell you privately the methods we employ: We vaccinate with hardship and destroy, destroy the thought that sadness is a stultifying force or that fear, or madness could be a qualifying horse in the race for true fulfillment in life's wild and winding course. A light in every corner we endorse." © Robert Baird/Qobuz