Sparklehorse: Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous made his name in the Nineties mixing modest atmospherics and cracked, pretty Southern gothic tunes into something otherworldly and sad. It's an approach that has won him fans such as Radiohead (for whom Sparklehorse opened in 1997) as well as Danger Mouse, who produces a couple of tracks on Linkous' first album in five years: the psych-rock opener "Don't Take My Sunshine Away" and the vaguely electro slow-burner "Getting It Wrong." Danger Mouse can't help but brighten up his section of the album, but the rest of Light Years is vintage dreamy 'Horse. Seductive though Linkous' cushy, narcotic patter can be, his slower songs, including "See the Light," feel like they're floating in an ocean of sleepiness. Let's hope Linkous follows the lead of the exceptions here: the fuzzy rocker "It's Not So Hard" and "Mountains," which sounds like prime Neil Young stuck in a vortex.