ALBUM REVIEW: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I Made A Place

Domino

Released: 15.11.19

The new Will Oldham album is a considerable 180 degree turn from his most recent output. I Made A Place has the kind of rich, celebratory instrumentation that hasn’t graced his records for the best part of a decade.

Opener A New Memory Box is pretty representative of the whole record – an affirming, beautiful country jam dense in texture and melody. Lyrically, much of the record is centred around the chaos and uncertainty of life; Look Backward On Your Future, Look Forward On Your Past is a playfully nihilistic number. It’s the effortlessness of movement between irreverence and profundity that makes this one of Oldham’s most compelling listens in years – if we’re going to fall off the cliff face into oblivion, we’re going to do it dancing.