Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware

Will Oldham is an unpredictable, eccentric fellow, but it’s probably safe to say that after 10 years and 12 albums (including live records), the Bonnie “Prince” Billy moniker is his primary means of musical output. Previous pseudonyms--all variations on the word “Palace”--haven’t surfaced since 2004’s Bonnie “Prince” Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music.

As BPB, Oldham has prolifically traversed Americana terrain, dabbling in Nashville country, Southern gothic, Gram Parsons country-rock and hauntingly spare folk. His voice has matured along the way, but still retains a laconic, warbled quality.

Oldham said in a New Yorker profile a few months back that Beware (out now) would be his “big” album, meaning he would promote it with singles, photo shoots, etc. “I am Goodbye” is the first single, and it’s a good primer for the rest of the album--a downright zippy tune that revels in the concept of goodbyes using swirly guitar and mandolin.

It’s the next logical step after last year’s In the Light, a strong album I overlooked until this year. It’s a sunny record, full of arrangements that could be considered elaborate compared with the quiet starkness earlier albums like Ease Down the Road and Master and Everyone. Beware is even more elaborate, working in a full roster of musicians contributing all sorts of bits and pieces to the whole. In the final track, “Afraid Ain’t Me,” you’ll hear a flute solo, hand claps, horns and bongos, to name a few.

It’s too big for Oldham, but only slightly so. While the arrangements can sometimes serve as roadblocks (the vocal echo, strings and choir on “Heart’s Arms”), often they enhance (the marimba and pedal steel on “You Can’t Hurt Me Now”).

The more barren “There is Something I Have to Say” hearkens to those earlier albums, serving as a nice rest before ramping up again. And there’s still Oldham’s words that’ll creep you out or make you laugh. Or both: “I want to be your only friend. Is that scary?”

He can also be ominous and a little confounding, as on “Death Final”: “In a pit of bodies I am loved by all/ By ham hock and by handkerchief, by damsel and by doll/ An angel warns us with its unfinal call/ It was not death final, it was only fall.”

Referencing a ham hock in a song about death is unexpected and a bit jarring, but keeping us guessing is something Oldham has down to a science.

(Also at The Other Paper)