Rise

Format

• ---

  WIGLP374Long Player  £18.00

Label

Domino

Bonnie Prince Billy

Pond Scum

A span of eight years is covered, in reverse, and many chestnuts are rolled out, freed of former contexts with sparse arrangements. "(I Was Drunk at the) Pulpit" feels, ten years from inception, more vividly worn; "Death to Everyone" is loosed from its frame, the bones decoupled and spread out, giving the song a reflective air (as opposed the biting declamation of the original); "Arise, Therefore" adapts its metronomic base, the evangelic twist of its roots made palpable. With the centre of the performance in stark relief, the gnomic qualities of two "Get On Jolly" pieces are intensified. Further accenting the devoted spirit of this collection is the inclusion of Bonnie's take on Prince's "The Cross", as well as the previously-unreleased original "Beezle."

Bonnie's lone shadow casts over this lot, accompanied on the first four tracks by David Heumann, but otherwise playing solo through a set of original songs (and two covers) representing a decade of progress in the almost unbearably intimate-yet-unknowable manner that was so often the vibe of those strange and wondrous days.

Tracklist

• 1. (I Was Drunk At The) Pulpit
  2. Death To Everyone
  3. Arise, Therefore
  4. Jolly Five (64)
  5. Beezle
  6. Jolly One (2/15)
  7. When Thy Songs Flows Through Me
  8. The Houseboat (O How I Enjoy The Light)
  9. Trudy Dies
  10. The Cross
  11. Stable Will
  12. The Idol On The Bar