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Show Wednesday, October 25,2006 THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Sparklehorse emerges from hibernation If Sparklehorse were a real animal, you wouldn't be able to ride it. Despite its comforting name—"A sparkling horse? How lovely!"—you wouldn't be able to approach it. You wouldn't be able to pet it, it wouldn't let you feed it and—most certainly—you would not be able to comprehend any of the thoughts bouncing around in its spectacular head. That is to say, if Sparklehorse—the experimental alt-fuzz outfit fronted by Mark Linkous—were an animal, it would be very similar to Sparklehorse the band: an enigma. Over the course of a decade or so, Sparklehorse has produced a handful of outrageously beautiful, well respected, critically acclaimed albums—none of which managed to pierce the armor of ignorance worn by Radio America. Sparklehorse was essentially the band that all pseudo-cool kids "knew about" but never listened to. Linkous did some notable soundtrack work ("Someday I Will Treat You Good" from "Laurel Canyon" is superb), released an album that perhaps occupies the gray space between illness and health better than any other (.Good Morning Spider) and yet... And yet the populace at large never seemed to GET Sparklehorse. That's all about to change. is the synthesis of heady With the release of the experimentalism (aimed at pushing the boundband's first Sparklehorse aries of style and studio record Dreamt for Light substance) and mein five years, Years in the Belly lodic intuition. It is Dreamt for of a Mountain high art for the avLight Years Capitol Records erage person. in the Belly of Four out of The album opens a Mountain, five stars with the perfectly Sparklehorse ', airy "Please Don't looks primed • ••• Take My Sunshine for — g a s p ! — widespread appreciation. Away," a track that (in typiThe biggest problem Spar- cal Sparklehorse fashion) is klehorse faced in the past at once spacey, weird and (read: created for itself) was soothingly familiar. When one of inaccessibility. Yes> the song breaks down about the band was brilliant. Yes, halfway through into the the band made beautiful, ex- static mesh of guitar distorotic music. No, nobody had tion, it's not a disjunction any idea what the hell it was from the pleasing prettiness that came before it as much trying to say. Sparklehorse was, simply as it is a binary compleput, too good for its own ment. good. "Getting It Wrong" breaks Dreamt for Light Years is hearts without listeners' reby no means a step down ally knowing what's going in quality—if anything, it's on; the narrative of loss is an improvement in terms of fractured, but the gaps are cohesion, tone and tempera- filled in perfectly by the stoment. The new record is the ry of plaintive synth beats rare case of "art meets pop" and ghostly vocal intonain which neither suffers; it tions. Other noteworthy tracks include "Shade and Honey," which sounds like the most excellent Yo La Tengo song Yo La Tcngo never recorded, and "Ghost in the Sky," which proves that Sparklehorse has some bite to its subdued bark after all. But then again, to play favorites is to miss the point of Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. This is an album, not a collection, and it functions as such: The experience of the record as a whole—breathtaking and life-giving; harrowing and hopeful; soft, loud, absent— is significantly greater than its composite parts. For listeners who may have pretended to love Sparklehorse in the past, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain is the opportunity to make good on the charade. But act quick—who knows if the wily Sparklehorse will ever be this approachable again. LATEST OUTKAST ALBUM STAYS POSITIVE continued from Page 6 interludes and sampled segments of dialogue from the film Idlewild (also starring Outkast's members) that give this "companion album" more of a soundtrack feel than an album-album feel. But, then again, there are 25 tracks (more than yy minutes' worth) here, so there's plenty of mate- rial to pull from. Enjoying Idlewild as a cohesive package is a matter of collage: How you skip and pick through the heavy selection to select the tracks that can stand on their own (there are roughly seven) is of utmost importance. The album's last track, "A Bad Note," is the strangest direction I have ever heard a popular hip-hop group take—it's nine minutes of Pink Floyd, drug-induced guitars, slow rpm, shadowcast rhythm set to droned and dreary lyrics. 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