Music Reviews: Bonnie "Prince" Billy

"Look Backward on Your Future, Look Forward to Your Past," Will Oldham declares on "I Made A Place," his first album of new Bonnie "Prince" Billy songs since 2011. Oldham has always used the past to address the present and the future, going back to his Palace-monikered days in the '90s. "I Made A Place" often uses the trappings of old-time mountain music: stark acoustic guitars backing Oldham's creaky voice, casual harmonies (from Joan Shelley), banjos, fiddles. But the arrangements range widely: Comforting woodwinds grace the spiritually minded "You Know The One," while "Squid Eye" is a perky, almost jangling rock song.

Oldham sees a bleak future. Climate change haunts the songs, but ecological disaster is tempered by Oldham's humor and empathy - he sprinkles lullabies and love songs among the cautionary pronouncements. "Be sure you teach your kids to swim and navigate from stars above. / The fate of landlocked life is grim when you ignore our will to love."

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