Bonnie 'Prince' Billy* – I See A Darkness

This is one my favorite albums of all time. Will Oldham at his absolute best. Incredible songs, incredible lyricism. Incredible by every measure.

A much better cover could have been done. They just used a simple paper inside.

Had this pressing twice. First one was so noisy that I sent it back, the new one is clearer but has a song that's just full of skips. Overall great album but this pressing is just not good at all

Somehow I own the first pressing of this, all the represses seem to have been done by Domino and mine is from Palace Records. Superb sound btw.

Great sounding pressing. There's a few moments of random surface noise, but nothing too transient-heavy or loud. The master is definitely not hot. The name of the game is subtle dynamic builds and this pressing showcases them all well! WORD TO THE WISE ... wet clean it and brush it before it hits your platter!

Solid pressing, one of the best albums of all time IMO. You can still buy the first pressing off of his bandcamp page.

Great album, and number "I See A Darkness" awesome number, pressing quality is ok, some surface noice but not annoying.

Source Wiki:
I See a Darkness is the sixth album by American musician Will Oldham, released on Palace Records on January 19, 1999 as the first album under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The album features appearances from Bob Arellano, Colin Gagon, Paul Oldham, David Pajo, and Peter Townsend.

Critical reception:
I See a Darkness received generally positive reviews from music critics. Samir Khan of Pitchfork described the album as Oldham's "consummate offering" and the "type of record that demands solitary reverence".[8] Gregg Rounds of AllMusic wrote that it showcased "a more melodic style than the veteran Palace listener might be used to", while at the same time noting that Oldham "hasn't abandoned his foundation of mordant lyrics and minimalist arrangements, but he has built a variety of different layers that make this album an emotional and pleasurable listening experience".[2] The A.V. Club's Stephen Thompson remarked that I See a Darkness was the "most appropriate synthesis yet of Oldham's vocals and backing band".[11] Simon Williams of NME was more reserved in his praise of the album, advising listeners that "patience is a virtue" while nonetheless calling it a "delicate, intelligent record".

Legacy:
I See a Darkness has been ranked in several publications' lists of best albums.[12] Pitchfork ranked it the ninth best album of the 1990s.[13] In 2004, Stylus Magazine placed I See a Darkness at number 171 on its list of the 200 best albums of all time,[14] while in 2006, Mojo deemed it a "modern classic" and the twentieth best album released during the magazine's lifetime.[15] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[16]

In 2002, Matt LeMay of Stylus Magazine wrote that "by addressing concepts so grand with such sincerity and skill, the album is incredibly powerful under even the most mundane of circumstances".[17] Reviewing its 2012 reissue, Aaron Lavery of Drowned in Sound called I See a Darkness Oldham's "finest achievement thus far" and the "essential release" in his discography.[4] Q cited the album as "his masterpiece, ushering in a direct and less mythic style of songwriting".[9]

Johnny Cash recorded the titular track on his 2000 album American III: Solitary Man, with Oldham providing background vocals.[18] Steve Adey also covered the title track on his 2006 album All Things Real.[19] Rosalía covered the song on her first album Los Ángeles in 2017.

This is a very fine album and it deservingly got its due recognition from the press corpus. Their only point of critique seemd to be of its depressive lyrical themes. It's curious how the object of description, instead of the way in which the object is descibed is the thing being questioned here. In my opinion, that really goes to show that there are no sensible ways to shun this albums lyrical prose or musicianship for that matter. It took me about ten or at least eight back to back listens of this album to fully ¨get it¨. Not because of intricate instrumentation, inaudiable lyrics or weird time signatures, but because of its sheer uniqueness as far as genre goes. It's quite hard to lump this record into any sort of category, this vinyl very much spins on its own musical orbit. Although some influences can of course be heard. Country music in general is very present within these songs. What is really impressive is that Billy uses the fomula of that upbeat oldtimer country song to tell tales of death, mutilation and depression. Another strong influence, as I hear it, is Nick Cave circa 'Your funeral, my trial'. This album speaks in very much the same way as that one does, its pathos as brilliantly obvious.

'I see a darkness' begins with its simplest and most efficient song. 'A minor place' unfurls with an almost nursery rhyme like quailty. The bard here has come to with his life and embraced his dark fellow traveler, his minor place. In this way of seeing it a possible last paragraph of this tale is told in the begining of the album. A minor citique here could be that this song would acutally fit great as an album closer. But to be fair, it in no way impedes the pace of the album being placed first in order. The next song, Nomadic revery, is where the real musical quailites of this record begins to shine through. I really can't overstate how special this song is to me, unfortunately that also makes it very hard to describe. I'll simply say that this is a great song which only reaffirms the general feeling of woe that the album cover inspires but the opening song almost deminishes. It feels as though listening to this song is the only proper way to explain it.

Moving on into darker territories, 'I see a darkness' the Pièce de résistance here, is also perhaps Billys finest tune to date. A slowburning ballad which, when its chours comes, swells into a gigantuan statement of bleakness. The song has famously been coverd by Johnny Cash on his lauderd American recordings, no doubt a fine tribute but it never comes close to the urgency of the original recording. The next trio of songs are not quite similar to one another but can be described with the same words. They are not standout tracks but at the same time far from 'fillers'. They exist as simple pleasures to further convey the dark mood of the album. As you've probably realized, my unequivocal praise of this album stems from it not only having a impossibly great roster of individual songs but also its ability to impress a mood upon the listener that is very much greater than the sum of its parts.

Moving on, Madeleine-mary is the only song here that I've yet to fully connect with. It's not a bad song in its own right, I simply can't appreciate it as much as the next fan. 'Song for the new breed' and 'Today I was an evil one' works in very much the same way as three tracks before 'Madeleine-mary'. All these five tracks could of course also be descibed and analyzed in depth, but my review is already streching out, so I've decided to focus on my favorites. The next to last song here, 'Black', is alongside 'I see a darkness' the albums bleakest moment. It tells the same sort of tale as the opening track but from a very different perspective. In 'A minor place' the darkness was only hinted at within metaphors such as 'the scars of last year's storm, rest like maggots on my arm' but here, in 'Black', there is a full on war raging between depression and stability/acceptance within the main character. Only after a violent power struggle can the author come to with his demon self.

The album ends, however, on a joyful note. 'Raining in darling' is a simple ode to love and life, an elonged and almost too simplified musical explanation of the proverb 'after rain comes sunshine'. If these songs stem from Billys personal life experiances, which they probably do, I can't say I envy this man one bit. But if this is the case, questioning the sequence of the songs is also pointless. A fictional tale would be more believable if it ended with the main character coming to simple with his struggle as he does in 'A minor place' instead of suddently appearing above all darkness. But this is only piss in the wind, and should not be put into consideration when you listen to this album for the first or hundreth time.

The title track on this record has literally moved me to tears in the past. Johnny Cash's version (featuring Will Oldham) is possibly (and somehow impossibly) even better.