The Dark Night of the Soul
An album entitled "The Dark Night of the Soul" was released this past year. Produced by Danger Mouse and multi-instrumentalist SparkleHorse. In addition, artwork and photography was provided by the acclaimed director David Lynch (as well as singing two songs on the album). The albums' title, used for describing a phase in a person's spiritual life where they are plagued by loneliness and desolation, was penned by the poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross in the 16th century. The music inside of this album serves to properly accompany the visual deduced from the title: noir-ish ballads with dark undertones, full and robust; ghostly-pop, that drives like a half-beaten Lincoln town car, through a lone and foggy city located in California Hills. Artists such as The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Francis Black (Pixies) and many others also collaborated on the album, providing vocals for the eerie and lush musical landscapes created by the duo. The album had its problems with the record company EMI, so it was never released for sale. You can find the torrent here for free download (approved by Danger Mouse) and on NPR for a free stream . There was also a book that was created from the whole project (which is where Lynch comes into the project) of visuals created by Lynch. This whole project was conceptualized from the beginning to be an artsy project, and unintentionally at the end it still remained as such, with the album haphazardly having contract problems and being released for free. This is definitely one of the best musical projects to have been released in 2009. And since the album is free, why not find one of those books and pay for it?
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