Chaos of the Galaxy

I just don't get it. Why can't Sparklehorse get the recognition they deserve? I've been agonizing over this idea ever since their 1998 album Good Morning Spider, in which I discovered just how amazing the band is. I was first introduced to Sparklehorse, surprisingly, by a great compilation put out, strangely, by a major record label, called Triple Scoop 3 - it not only had stellar, under-the-radar bands on it, but was brilliantly sequenced as well. It appears to only have come out in Canada, so if I ever find my tape again, I guess it's some kind of collector's item.

Anyway, it contained the brilliant Hammering the Cramps by Sparklehorse, a noisy, country-fried, ebullient pop song with a mysterious-sounding lead singer who's way of seeing things mystified me. "Hey little car, can you fly?" Mark Linkous sings in verse 2. Good question, Mark, but what does it have to do with the movie Poltergeist, and listening to punk band The Cramps really loud?

The first Sparklehorse album I bought was their their 2nd, Good Morning Spider, which did not contain "Hammering the Cramps". It does, however, have 17 other tracks of epic, dynamic variety with sweet, memorable melodies and innovative sound and production. Pig is the first song, and it's completely terrifying, and contains the lyrics "I wanna try and fly/I wanna try and die/I wanna be a pig/I wanna fuck a car", and, "I wanna be a spongy new baby with a shiny brain". The album never gets that loud again, and it also features some of the prettiest songs you're likely to hear ever, like "Saint Mary" (which also displays another Sparklehorse returning theme: deep depression - "The only things I really need is water a gun and rabbits," he sings, too fucked up to even get grammar right) and "Box of Stars [Part One]". But the over-riding feel of the album is pop. Despite all the aggression, delirium, and depression, Linkous can again and again write a sweet pop song. And he mostly produces the damn things too. Take these, for example:

Maria's Little Elbows
Ghost of His Smile < I dare you to try not liking this song.

It was this recent short doc, Belly of a Mountain (below) that got me thinking all this again, though I'll always find myself putting on Sparklehorse sooner or later.





Even though their first two albums are classic for me, their third is also miraculous at times and their fourth (with production by Dangermouse, a sort of Gnarls Sparkley if you will ... though the official title of their supposed forthcoming collaboration is 'Dangerhorse') has some interesting stuff.
A few more notes about Good Morning Spider:

- Sparklehorse covers a Daniel Johnston song beautifully on the album, something Sparklehorse has done at least twice since. The song is "Hey, Joe". (The Daniel Johnston connection culminated in Mark Linkous producing one of his albums, Fear Yourself)

- There is a brilliant song featuring both noisy sound collage and thrilling pop riffage, which brilliantly subverts the common pop song, called "Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man"