Sparklehorse
Distorted Ghost EP(Odeon)
An apt title for this collection of revisions, versions and spare bits and pieces from Mark Linkous and his cantankerous mates - Grandaddy's fuzzy, dysfunctional country cousins. The tone here is cheerier in general than '98's fine, mordant, shit-I-nearly-died 'Good Morning Spider' album, with three out of six song titles featuring the word 'happy'. Could be a ruse, mind, given the standout is two-and-a-half minutes of delicate fatalism called 'Waiting For Nothing' and that Linkous claims, in the exuberant remix of 'Happy Man', "I woke up in a horse's stomach one foggy morning". Not that much fun, realistically.
JOHN MULVEY
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