Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

Sparklehorse

Battling his own personal demons while he has been highly coveted as a producer for other bands, singer/songwriter Mark Linkous' output with his own Sparklehorse has been as irregular as it is ingenious. And it's been five years since the candid album It's a Wonderful Life welcomed a clean-and-sober, Linkous crafting the same divine and bizarre songs that have come to define his North Carolina-based band. That inclination continues here with the peculiar front man punctuating his songs with mentions of ghosts and knives and mountaintops, and presenting them with a murmured, spaced-out and psychedelic soundtrack. The up-tempo, bundle-of-nerves pop songs "It's Not So Hard" and Guided by Voices twin "Ghost in the Sky," though luscious, seem out of place among slow and startling ballads like "Getting It Wrong," "See the Light" or, especially, the imminent kiss-off "Some Sweet Day," where Linkous grouses, "I was the one who loved you most/ But you can't put your arms around a ghost." A parting shot that's meant to linger—much like the 53 minutes that are Mark Linkous' latest comeback. --Scott Holter

Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain Album: