Sparklehorse
Distorted Ghost EP

THE REVIEW

It was 1998 and Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse, released the album “Good Morning Spider” after many personal struggles, and it is really from that album that we must start to talk about this interesting EP.

In the second Sparklehorse album, there was the song “Chaos Of The Galaxy/Happy Man,” which is a blending of a song (“Happy Man”) and fragments of noise experimentation (“Chaos Of The Galaxy”) that shattered the actual song. In this EP, Linkous includes only “Happy Man,” stripped of noisy interludes, allowing it to be enjoyed in its original and less avant-garde form. However, one should not think of this EP as a sort of extended single. Indeed, the brief but intense “Waiting For Nothing” arrives, which seems like an outtake from “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot.” Then comes the equally brief “Happy Place,” a b-side of the single "Sick of Goodbyes," where Linkous demonstrates his ability to condense excellent melodic hints into just over two minutes. The cover of Daniel Johnston’s “My Yoke Is Heavy” is an almost obligatory tribute to an artist close to Mark both in lo-fi attitude and personal history, leading to their collaboration on Johnston's studio album Fear Yourself.

The last two tracks are two live recordings: “Gasoline Horseys” is performed live in a less minimalist manner than the studio version, and “Happy Pig,” which is the combination of the aforementioned “Happy Man” and “Pig,” leading to the creation of one of the most rock pieces of the Sparkling Horse.