BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY
Master And Everyone
Palace Records
· A minimalist folk masterpiece – this record could be 100 years old.
If Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s last album, Ease Down the Road, was surprisingly spry (with our man Will Oldham sounding genuinely love-stricken, the album wrapped up with a "Rich Wife Full of Happiness"), then Master And Everyone is the proverbial honeymoon record, peering out through the slightest of cracks.
Stripped down to acoustic guitar and the occasional flourish (when a distant organ kicks in on "Ain’t You Wealthy, Ain’t You Wise?" it’s almost shocking), Oldham sings the likes of "Joy and Jubilee" ("I mean love, is what I mean"), "The Way" (as in "Love me the way I love you") and "Even If Love" (dedicated "as a whole" to PJ Harvey) like a back-porch poet. One would almost expect the credits to reveal the songs on Master and Everyone to be long-lost traditional compositions, each one simplistic, fetching and pure. Someday you may find Master and Everyone in the Smithsonian.
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