Sparklehorse
Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain

THE REVIEW

In 2006, five years after "It's A Wonderful Life," Mark Linkous re-emerges, releasing "Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of a Mountain," the final Sparklehorse album. Linkous spends these 5 years at Static King, his personal recording studio in North Carolina, composing new songs and developing others that were left out from the previous work.

Danger Mouse and Dave Fridmann contribute to the album's creation (both in production along with Linkous himself), as well as various collaborators including Tom Waits, Steven Drozd, and the usual Scott Minor. This album represents a step back in terms of composition compared to Sparklehorse's discography, yet remains an above-average product. The album appears in nearly all 12 episodes as highly derivative of "It's A Wonderful Life," but there are welcome innovations. Such is the case with "Don't Take My Sunshine Away," which combines lo-fi production and Beatles influences, and "Mountains," where the magnificent samples of Danger Mouse appear. The album closes with the title track, featuring guitar loops and all kinds of keyboards, transporting us to hyperuranic places. The song is pervaded by rarefied and delicate atmospheres that at times recall the ambient of Fennesz, with whom Linkous collaborated in 2009 for "In The Fishtank 15."

"Dreamt For Light Years In the Belly of a Mountain" is the album that concludes the story of Sparklehorse, as Linkous, after this album, will release a collaborative album with Danger Mouse and one already mentioned with Fennesz. In March 2010, Linkous takes his own life, leaving unfinished the album he was working on, which was supposed to have Steve Albini as the producer.