Sparklehorse – which I can’t think of really being anything other than Virginia native Mark Linkous – has, in the fall of 2023, released his last, and maybe most remarkable album, “Bird Machine.”
I remember buying out of the blue and listening to his debut: “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot,” as a solicitor training in London. It brings back lots of late 1995 memories. It was also an incredible album.
I love the way – when describing Spaklehorse – AllMusic states: “The project of Mark Linkous, Sparklehorse’s noisy rock, pastoral folk, psychedelic pop, and gently devastating ballads were always grounded in empathy.” Noisy rock, folk, psychedelic pop, ballads… grounded in empathy. That is one big stew.
Linkous recorded four albums before his death. In 2010, on Saturday, 6 March, in Knoxville, Tennessee, he took his own life with a shotgun, shooting himself in the heart in an alley outside a friend’s home. He was only 47.
He had a lot of personal struggles, to say the least.
Before that, after “Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot” became somewhat heralded in the indie circuit, Linkous experienced a life-altering incident while on tour with Radiohead in 1996. After ingesting a mix of Valium and antidepressants, he passed out in the bathroom of his hotel room in London with his legs pinned beneath him. He remained in that position for almost 14 hours, which cut off circulation to his legs. The lack of blood flow caused him to go into cardiac arrest when the paramedics attempted to straighten his legs.
He technically died for a couple of minutes but was revived by the emergency medical team.
This incident led to a grueling series of surgeries for Linkous. He had to undergo multiple operations to save his legs from amputation, and during this period, he used a wheelchair for six months. Despite the severity of the incident, he managed to recover to the point of walking again, although with difficulty. Sparklehorse’s second LP, “Good Morning Spider,” was released around this time, and Linkous would perform in a wheelchair.
He released two further albums, “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain” (Danger Mouse and Linkous’ collaboration, “Dark Night of the Soul” came out soon after Linkous took his own life in 2010… but it doesn’t feel like a real Sparklehorse album.)
Now we’re in late 2023, and thirteen years following Mark Linkous shooting himself to death, we have “Bird Machine.“
This post took me a while to write.
His family was left behind what was an almost complete “Bird Machine” before Linkous took his own life. It was to be Sparklehorse’s fifth album. Linkous had even kept handwritten notes featuring Bird Machine’s title and tracklist. He had begun working on it with producer Steve Albini.
So it was left to his family – his brother Matt and sister-in-law Melissa – to help complete the project in early 2023 (plus nephew Spencer, who provided additional vocals.)
Verdict: it’s great.
I think Linkous would have adored this album – this is Sparklehorse at its finest, primarily low beat, often fuzzy, spacey noise-pop, but with sprinklings of beauty such as “Evening Star Supercharger.“
It can be like the first track, “It Will Never Stop,” which is about as noisy as he gets (on first listen, someone else asked me, “Is this music?!”). But the album will move on to the simple, acoustic beauty of “Falling Down.” and its haunting lyrics, “I Keep on falling down. To be found by the plow. Years from now. Keep on falling down.“
The most heartbreaking song is “Stay,” the closer, with its simple lyrics: “Stay today. Stay for the day. Oh, it’s gonna get brighter. Stay for the day.”
Matt Linkous ultimately said of the project: “It means so much to me, this last batch of beautiful stuff that my brother was putting together. When I sit down and put on a pair of headphones, I’ll run it all the way through. Everything from ‘It Will Never Stop’ to ‘Evening Star Supercharger’ to ‘Stay’, that’s Mark just letting it out.”
As one of the song titles suggests, Linkous “Fucked it up real Good.” Because he took his own life, and I wish Mark Linkous was still here.
But I’m so glad to finally get “Bird Machine.“
9/10
Chris Garrod, November 18, 2023
PS: Do buy/rent but watch the 2022 documentary “This is Sparklehorse” if you can…
