The collaborators listed on Mark Linkous’ five-years-a-comin’ new record read like the dream Christmas Card list of a US alt-rock fanatic. For a supposed hermit (Dreamt… took shape in Linkous’ remote, North Carolina bolt-hole), the Sparklehorse mainman has proved crazily hospitable here - Joan Wasser plays violin, Steven Drozd drums, Dangermouse adds subtle beats, even Tom bloody Waits appears to tinkle some ivories. However, make no mistake – the dominant personality on display belongs to Linkous.
Like an agoraphobic sibling of Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs, Dreamt… is a beguiling mixture of the arcane, the morose and the intricately detailed. The balsa wood fragility of tracks like ‘Return To Me’ and ‘Morning Hollow’ set the prevailing melancholic (but delicately melodic) tone – ‘Ghosts In The Sky’ and ‘It’s Not So Hard’ may be noisier, but they offer little in the way of mood-clearing catharsis. Instead, like the moment when the Beach Boys harmonising of the opener ‘Please Don’t Take My Sunshine’ really kicks in, the shift in gears only acts to emphasise the pervading sadness.
By this stage in the game, we can be pretty confident that Linkous is not in the running for a new James Bond theme song, but, on the evidence of this wonderful, introverted, album, that’s not to say that his creative terrain is a closed-off, restrictive place. Dreamt... is a fine record full of beauty, mystery and longing. And one that explains why his front-door keeps getting knocked on. No matter how much he wants to hide away.