Photo: Urban Wyatt
The first I heard of Will Oldham was his debut album under the name Bonnie Prince Billy. Called I See A Darkness, it was delicate and lovely, but marked by a fixation on death and depression. In the twenty five years since then, not a lot has changed in Oldham’s music, but it’s remained essential, his albums more often riveting than not.
It’s hard to pin down why exactly, except that he seems incapable of making anything that’s not deeply felt. His latest album is the twenty sixth if you include covers and collaborations, and shows his gift with words and melody is as sharp as ever.
When the strings enter in the chorus of ‘Crazy Blue Bells’, and the song flips from minor to major, it’s thoroughly lovely, and illustrative of the line Oldham has been walking all these years.
His music has always had uplift alongside the despair, and since the birth of his daughter in 2018 perhaps a bit more so. She’s mentioned in that song, as he pictures them singing together, (admittedly among some vaguely apocalyptic imagery). “Blast off into love, my friend” goes one lyric.
On ‘Like It Or Not’, he belts out “brace yourself for ecstatic eruption from the volcanic core of your heart”, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else writing a line like that, or delivering it with the same gusto.
As this album's title suggests, it sometimes has the feeling of Oldham passing down advice.
On the other hand, there’s also a song called ‘Willow Pine and Oak’, where he says people fall into one of these three groups of tree (of willows he says “their switches might be used to bust your britches”), and by the song’s end decides “it’s with an oak my love resides”.
It’s followed by one called ‘Trees of Hell”, which graphically describes vegetation rising up to destroy humanity after we wrecked the planet.
Tracks like these welcomely prove that Oldham is just as cynical, and weird, as ever.
There’s an archaic, dirgey feeling to the arrangements on that one with its droning strings, but overall the album is sparse and lacking any rhythm section.
On ‘Blood of the Wine’, another one that balances dread with optimism, Oldham is joined by a meandering violin and lead acoustic.
Pitchfork noted recently that Will Oldham has always sounded old beyond his years, and on Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You his voice is even more rough around the edges. That enhances his slightly unhinged approach though, and similarly, the confrontational moments offset the ones where he’s simply happy to be alive, dispensing wisdom about family in ways no one else can.
