Sparkle On!

Okay I've been slacking on my music recommendations. And yes, I owe you several links to free music downloads. I know I know. Bad bad blogger. But I'm back in the blogosphere and will do by best to keep you up to date with the latest and greatest. Speaking of, I just ordered a copy of this fantastic new CD. I just had a listen to a few of the tracks and was moved to immediately A) buy it B) blog it.  It's that's good. The CD is the recently released Dark Night of the Soul, a multimedia project  of  Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse with Danger Mouse and director David Lynch (that was tied up in legal issues with EMI for more than a year finally getting an official release.)  The music, evocative, sometimes sad  or alternatively uplifting is all the more moving since Mark Linkous tragically took his own life earlier this year. (One of the guest vocalists on the album, Vic Chesnut also committed suicide last December.) But it's not all sorrow and loss; Like the world we live in, it also contains moments of joy and hope.

In addition to Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, other artists appearing on Dark Night of the Soul include The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy and Admiral Radley, Frank Black of Pixies, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Gerbils. Take a listen from NPR. Video and more info after the jump...

From NPR:

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous (a.k.a. Sparklehorse) first came up with the idea for Dark Night of the Soul while working together on the 2006 Sparklehorse album Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. Linkous had written a number of songs he wasn't comfortable singing, so Danger Mouse suggested getting someone else to do the vocals. The result is an all-star cast of guest artists on Dark Night, including The Shins' James Mercer (who most recently worked with Danger Mouse on the Broken Bells album), Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Iggy Pop, each of whom offers his own interpretation of the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse songs.

"As we finished the songs with the various artists, we started to notice some interesting patterns," Burton says. "We'd never given specific direction to any of the singers involved, nor had we played them any of the other songs on the album. Yet there seemed to be common themes in the lyrics and feel of the songs. There was pain, revenge, war, twisted dreams and other beautifully haunting visual aspects to it all."

Part of those haunting visual aspects were captured in a series of surreal photographs filmmaker David Lynch created, based on the stories and themes of the songs. The images are available in a 48-page book in the deluxe version of Dark Night of the Soul, which also includes a poster, postcards, two LPs, a CD and a bonus instrumental CD. Lynch himself actually sings on a couple of tracks on the album.

.