BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - We Are Together Again

A career spanning more than three decades and over forty albums is an enormous body of work, but for an artist like Will Oldham it's just one long series of notes and reflections, running parallel to a life lived in constant search of stories to tell.

With melodies as simple as they are archaic and mysterious, the American musician has come through unscathed the transition from subversive country singer under the many Palace monikers (Brothers, Songs, Contribution, Music) to cursed noir poet (the unforgettable "I See A Darkness" and "Master And Everyone"), and now, with the fog cleared, has embraced the country gospel of Nashville, buoyed by a vocal maturity that was put to the test on the previous album, "The Purple Bird".

This return to roots and to an archaic folk language finds further expression in "We Are Together Again", an album made at a Louisville studio with trusted producer and sound engineer Jim Marlowe. Ten tracks, some of which were left off the previous "The Purple Bird" because they didn't fit its context. Ten songs as fragile and delicate as they are refined.

Alongside his ever-descriptive, poetic lyrics, the American musician sets subdued, unripened melodies that only rarely find comfort in instrumental solutions with immediate appeal, as on "(Everybody Got A) Friend Named Joe".

The details are the real strength of an album that, on a distracted listen, might seem slightly monochromatic: sometimes it's the horns that trigger a subtle shift in rhythm ("Vietnam Sunshine"), more often it's the interplay of voices that seduces the listener, reconciling sparse instrumental structures with baroque-folk grandeur ("Strange Trouble" and "Life In A Scary Horses").

The author of "We Are Together Again" is an extremely curious and attentive musician. The presence among the vocalists of Sally Timms of the Mekons and Catherine Irwin of Freakwater is no accident: Will Oldham's ear has always been attuned to different languages, as you only need to scroll through his list of collaborations to understand (from Trembling Bells to Bitchin Bajas, from Tortoise to Matt Sweeney) – and it's no surprise that for the sumptuous chamber-folk arrangement of "Hey Little" he cited "Dear Jessie" by Madonna as an inspiration.

The large number of collaborators joining Will Oldham on this new album – among others Thomas Deakin, Chris Bush, Erin Hill, Nuala Kennedy, Ned Oldham, Chris Cupp, Jacob Duncan – is a further sign of the care that went into crafting it, and although these songs don't add anything new to what's already been said across a long career, they offer so much beauty, melancholy and hope that it's impossible not to appreciate them.

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16/05/2026