360 records from 2000: 46. Sparklehorse: Distorted ghost

Country: US
Artist: Male solo artist
Career: recording since 1995
Language: English
Genre: Pop / Rock

It’s uncomfortable saying it in the knowledge of the tragic story and how it unfolded, but Mark Linkous –or his record company- often treated his talent somewhat mercenary. What’s this? An EP released as a stopgap two years after his second album, containing one re-recorded version of a song on that second album, the bonus track from the vinyl edition of his first album, three b-sides from various singles off his second album and one unreleased cover recorded in his home studio / shed. He did that sort of thing time and again. The low point was when a good third of his fourth (comeback) album had been available on singles and as bonus tracks from the third album, released half a decade earlier. I was a committed fan and I spent far too much money collecting the same bunch of songs over and over again.

But… for all that, I love all those songs. Marketing aside, this is a scattershot, stopgap six-track odds-and-ends EP (certainly not the first place to look, make that ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ or ‘Good morning spider’), but I can’t fault it. The Memphis version of ‘Happy man’ (recorded at Easley with Eric Drew Feldman) replaces the crackle and hiss from the amazing original version (you can see why they couldn’t release a single of that version!) with… some more hiss, but also a solid rocking version, as close to the live Sparklehorse experience as you’d get in the studio. ‘Waiting for nothing’ and ‘Happy place’, two home recorded miniature pop songs, are alive with feeling, and over much too fast at just over two minutes each, but what four minutes. The live versions of ‘Gasoline horseys’, ‘Happy man’ and ‘Pig’ aren’t as transcendental as the best times I saw him live, but transform the songs to the stage effectively. ‘My yoke is heavy’, a Daniel Johnston cover, is the only one that’s a little weak to me – but still saved but some excellent production and arrangements.

He was truly gifted.

At its best: Waiting for nothing, Gasoline horseys (live)