SPARKLEHORSE
It's a Wonderful Life
(Capitol)
What makes an artist? Is it the singleminded pursuit of a creative goal no one else but the artist can see? Perhaps it's the self-confidence required to follow one's own creative instincts regardless of outside scrutiny. Maybe it's the inner knowledge that yes, this way is the right way, even if that way leads up one's own rectum. Arguably, it's all that and more. Mark Linkous, the brains behind the remarkable Sparklehorse, is indubitably an artist. He always follows his own path, no matter how thick the brambles or deep the potholes.

In the 80s he tried following someone else's lead as a member of the Dancing Hoods, an L.A.-based rock/pop band that had one minor hit with the song "Baby's Got Rockets" but went no further down the road to fame and fortune. Tiring of playing the game, Linkous moved back to his native Virginia and drifted in a more personal musical direction. He remains devoted to memorable melodies, but he refuses to let them unfold cleanly. He stretches them, kneads them, reshapes them, then puts them through an often fuzz-encrusted funhouse mirror until they come out twisted into shapes unimagined by anyone except their sculptor. Joined by his trademark imagery-heavy lyrics, seemingly contradictory high tech/low fidelity production and plaintive singing, the songs sound like those of no one else. "Idiosyncratic" and "eccentric" are words that come to mind when describing the music of Sparklehorse, but so are "mesmerizing" and "beautiful."

It's a Wonderful Life is Sparklehorse's third album, following the auspicious debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and the widely-hailed Good Morning Spider. Life is Linkous' most low-key album, as well as his most consistently melodic, even, in some spots, tender. Snarling rockers like "Piano Fire" and "King of Nails" forcefully kick down the door and allow stately ballads like "More Yellow Birds" and "Babies On the Sun" to gracefully glide in. Over the ethereal drones of a variety of pre-synthesizer keyboards, Linkous gently croons, "I'm the dog that ate/Your birthday cake/It's a wonderful life" on the wavering, lovely title track. The catchy, winsome "Gold Days" offers "a necklace of leaves" and "spirits in the trees" to "keep all your crows away," adding the sweet admonition "May your days be gold my child," with harmony by the Cardigans' Nina Persson. Other tunes contain references to "fiery pianos," "summer's bleeding veils" and "a child who spoke in tongues/And smelled like sun." "Dog Door," with guest vocals by fellow American Gothic enthusiast Tom Waits, noisily laments that "she got me coming through the dog door" over a clanking found-sound groove, while "Eye Pennies" enlists Polly Jean Harvey to contemplate the time when "the monkeys will fly/And leave me with pennies in my eyes." Love, death, childhood and the inner workings of the natural world swirl in a storm of frizzy feedback and tinny distortion, as Linkous invites the listener to behold his creations, warts and all, with confidence that enhancing the flaws makes his work even more beautiful.

Linkous uses intimately personal imagery, full of references to animals, plants, weather and other natural phenomena, that may make sense only to its scripter. As with the more whimsical but similar musings of British eccentric Robyn Hitchcock, one is left with the distinct impression that these tunes mean something deep and emotional to their creator. The languid, inviting melodies make the effort of understanding easier to bear while the static-frosted production at the same time holds the songs at arm's length. It's a unique sound that seems to invite frustration more than affection, but this is definitely a case in which the literature should not be critiqued by its dust jacket. Sparklehorse is not an easy band to like, but give its music time and attention and it will be impossible not to love. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Giant Sand, the Flaming Lips, Varnaline's Songs in a Northern Key