Some of Will Oldham’s critics find his songs too sad, or his voice too old and creaky. The biggest complaint, though, is that his releases vary only slightly in mood or esthetic from the quiet, sad, shuffling folk music that is his trademark sound. It’s a view strengthened by the many team-ups (with Matt Sweeney of Chavez, and post-rock group Tortoise, to name a couple) and covers he's released. Lie Down in the Light is the first Bonnie "Prince" Billy album to differ substantially in tone from past releases, and as such might prove polarizing for longtime fans. While it could threaten Oldham's strong fan base, for those who give themselves over to it, the album will be one of the most cathartic and personal musical experiences this year.

Until now, Oldham's songs always sounded like tales of impending doom, or elegiac aftershock, as if he were relaying all the fruitful and positive things about his life with a big fat "but..." tacked on. Lie Down in the Light uses essentially this same formula without the "but...." It’s an album like rolling green hills in morning light, where all the wondrous and deeply satisfying facets of Oldham's life, which would inevitably be spoiled by some dark cloud on previous albums, are shown some well-deserved mercy.

The world that Oldham creates here is so well-rounded and full that it's almost as if the darkness that he saw was an illusion all along. On Lie Down in the Light, Will Oldham is a new version of himself — a version that, while foreign to longtime fans, is as well-executed and consistent as it is on any of his albums, conjuring a completely new portrait of his own psyche that still rings honest and true.