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Amazon.com
Greatest Palace Music appears to be a strangely-packaged greatest-hits collection, stuffed nicely some of the most affecting songs Will Oldham's penned, "Ohio River Boat Song" and "Horses" among them. But while his own fan club picked these songs, here they've been wholly re-recorded by Oldham under his currently-preferred moniker Bonnie Prince Billy (though he continues to record under his own name when he feels like it) since retiring the Palace name and its permutations in the late 1990s. Sings was cut in a fancy Nashville studio, with a host of wizened session pros including pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins and bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan. Each song has layers of fiddle, pedal steel, vibes, vocals, even saxophone. You'd sooner have expected an electronic album from Oldham than this--none of it appears to have been played by a drunk indie-rocker. A few of the arrangements are almost Branson/ Mandrell-ish and seem like a put-on at first (witness the off-Broadway gospel backup vocals on "Pushkin.") But with a few listens, the album's adult genius is clear. Here are intriguing, laidback versions of a master songwriter's best songs, sung in his most assured voice yet. Is it some bizarre, ironic in-joke? Who cares, when the result sounds this great? --Mike McGonigal