Superwolves

Vocalist/songwriter Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy) and guitarist Matt Sweeneys 2005 collaboration Superwolf was a subtle and haunting affair, with Sweeneys masterful guitar work and understated backing vocals adding counterpoint to some of Oldhams most gently sinister songwriting. Though the duo collaborated before and since the release of Superwolf, they rekindle the spare, pristine atmosphere of the album on Superwolves, a sequel that arrives 16 years after its predecessor. Oldhams albums always temper organic beauty with elements of depravity and bleak humor, and Sweeneys gifts for arranging his variety of excellent guitar tones and performances bring the sublime and sacred side of Oldhams songwriting to the forefront. After the especially menacing album opener Make Worry for Me, Superwolves switches into a lower gear for the devotional folk of Good to My Girls and God Is Waiting. The spacious I Am a Youth Inclined to Ramble” recalls British folk while Oldham delivers a quakingly passionate vocal performance aided only by occasional harmonies and Sweeneys perfectly mixed barrage of layered acoustic and overdriven guitars. The jazz-tinged Americana of My Body Is My Own is among the more immediately vulnerable songs in Oldhams sprawling catalog, pairing delicate, reverb-glazed guitar voicings with plainspoken lyrics of autonomy and reincarnation. The few songs where Oldham and Sweeney strike up the band -- guest shredding and revved-up rhythms by Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar and his band on Hall of Death or the tense brooding of album closer Not Fooling -- are lively fun, but much like Superwolf many years before it, Superwolves is at its most powerful in its calmest, most clearly articulated moments. ~ Fred Thomas