Posthumous Sparklehorse Album 'Bird Machine' To Be Released In September
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Danny Clinch
A posthumous Sparklehorse album will be released later this summer.
'Bird Machine' marks the first body of new music from singer-songwriter Mark Linkous since his death in 2010.
Linkous started work on what was set to be his fifth Sparklehorse album the year before he died, aged 47. Recorded at producer Steve Albini's Static King studio, work stopped following Linkous' sudden death by suicide, which left behind a collection of handwritten notes, including the record's title and tracklist, and a bunch of songs close to completion.
Now, 13 years later, Linkous' brother Matt and sister-in-law Melissa have revealed that they will release the album posthumously, having already shared its first single, It Will Never Stop, in December. A second preview comes in the form of the melancholic Evening Star Supercharger, which you can check out below.
"It’s the hardest decision I’ve ever made", said Matt. "It’s difficult making a choice about someone else’s art, even if you’ve known them all your life and worked with them, even if they were your brother and best friend. We had long conversations about not wanting to take this into a different direction. We wanted to bring out what was there."
With assistance from trusted musicians, including producer Alan Weatherhead, Joel Hamilton mixing, and Greg Calbi mastering, the album will arrive on September 8.
"It means so much to me, this last batch of beautiful stuff that my brother was putting together," Matt added. "When I sit down and put on a pair of headphones, I’ll run it all the way through. Everything from It Will Never Stop to Evening Star Supercharger to Stay, that’s Mark just letting it out."
'Bird Machine' tracklist:
1. It Will Never Stop
2. Kind Ghosts
3. Evening Star Supercharger
4. O Child
5.Falling Down
6. I Fucked It Up
7. Hello Lord
8. Daddy’s Gone
9. Chaos of the Universe
10. Listening to the Higsons
11. Everybody’s Gone to Sleep
12. Scull of Lucia
13. Blue
14. Stay
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