Okay, I promise that our blog will go back to being funny again soon.
The death of Mark Linkous (who recorded under the name Sparklehorse) is extremely sad news. Like Elliott Smith, his music is extremely hard to listen to so soon after the fact; the darkness and sadness is there in every song.
I remember the day that I purchased Sparklehorse’s It’s a Wonderful Life, because it happened to be the same day that I had taken the SAT exam. That album meant a lot to me in my late high school days, and I look forward to a time when I’ll be able to listen to it again without feeling overwhelmed by the sad circumstances of Linkous’s death.
My favorite song on the album is “More Yellow Birds,” which opens with this amazing couplet: ”Is your jewelry still / lost in the sand?” This simple lyric is like a tiny short story, and I know that many of the lyrics I’ve written for my own songs have been deeply inspired by Linkous’s work on It’s a Wonderful Life.
He was an amazing talent, and he will be missed.
-Warren
