TS: Palace [Etc.] Vs Bonnie Prince Billy

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So, Five albums on each side.

Palace -
There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You
Days In The Wake,
Viva Last Blues
Arise Therefore
Joya

Bonnie
I See A Darkness
Ease Down The Road
Master And Everyone
Greatest Palace Music
Superwolf

Sundry singles which I'm going to divide at the I Am Drinking Again tour cds

Mainly inspired by the fact that I put 'there is no-one...' on the other night for the first time in a while and, after turning the middle down a bit to clear the foggy recording, remembered just how great it is. The song writing is not quite a sophisticated as the post name change releases but it doesn't suffer at all - (I Was Drunk At The) Pulpit only has one chord.

I still think there's something about the palace releases that bpb stuff just doesn't have - a sharpness, a clarity and a wretchedness that is diminishes with each release. The greates palace versions, despite being lyrically identical to the originals, fail to capture this in any way. So, I have to fall on the former side. discuss.

― hmmm (hmmm), Thursday, 28 April 2005 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

It seems like WO gave the musicians/songs a LOAD of freedom on the Palace stuff, resulting in v weird (often), v diff from rec to rec (always) treatments and kinda mixed results (I like what I know, mostly, but sometimes I don't think it's playing to Will's strengths) AND THEN w/the BPB stuff he settled down into pretty awesomely strong countryrock (my idea of where those strengths lie, see "I See a Darkness" which isn't as startling or exciting or whatever as his Palace stuff but fuck it's SO STRONG and GOOD, etc). I haven't heard much of the recent stuff, tho, at least on record; live him and his 'Superwolf' band playing 'Greatest Palace Music', in gorgeous bigriffed LAstyle countryrock (maybe just altcountry really, oh well, it ruled) settings were fucking incredible, tho I've read that's a common reaction to him live)

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 28 April 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to quibble, but Joya and Arise are not credited to Palace. I suspect Will himself would say that's a significant distinction - by the time of Arise he was aiming for something very different than w/ the Palace records.

― asl, Thursday, 28 April 2005 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I was under the impression that "Superwolf" was not technically a BPB album, but I could be wrong.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 28 April 2005 13:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I did dilemma about both of these for a while before posting the thread. Regarding superwolf, given the freedom that will gives the people he is working with anyway and given the fact that we don't know exactly how free thie reign is (my impression og the greatest originals records is that the musicians were given a pretty free reign) on the other records, I found it hard to make a definite distinction between this and his other stuff.

I think that Arise and Joya are similar enough to the palace stuff to be counted. I am happy to admit that they are also different enough to be treated as entities in their own rights. The trouble is that if we start treating them in this way then shouldn't the singles, collaborations, soundtracks etc etc be considered in this way as well and we then end up in a big mess. I think that the palace/bpb distinction, while woefully inadequate as a summary of his output, is the best one to use in this case.

― hmmm (hmmm), Thursday, 28 April 2005 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I believe Arise Therefore was originally released as Palace but upon repressing under Will's own name.

That said, Palace material by a fairly long shot. I See A Darkness isn't as great as everyone says it is, but OTOH, Ease Down The Road is never given the credit it deserves. Still, there's definitely something more unique about the Palace records. What hmmm's said about There is No One is totally OTM; it's a great record, and the warmth of the arrangements is something special. HOPE ALONE gives the edge to Palace; that's the perfect EP. I dare you to name a better one (esp. one in the "classic indie" canon.)

― Ian John50n (orion), Thursday, 28 April 2005 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to quibble, but ... Arise [is] not credited to Palace.

It was when it came out in 1996.

Even though I haven't listened to a Palace album in years, I'll take them over Bonnie Prince Billy. I've always thought I See A Darkness was obscenely over-rated, a poor man's Tonight's The Night; I would've never bought it if it weren't for Johnny Cash's great cover of the title track. But I won't hold that against him. How can you be mad at the Man in Black?

HOPE ALONE gives the edge to Palace; that's the perfect EP. I dare you to name a better one (esp. one in the "classic indie" canon.)

DC labelmates Smog and Pavement turned out some fine EPs in the early 1990s that I prefer.

― Vic Funk, Thursday, 28 April 2005 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian, "Kicking a Couple Around" by Smog is a pretty good EP, and so is "Sexy Sam" by Girls Against Boys. Also the first Belle & Sebastian EP is up there.

hmmm, Joya is the first album credited to Will. And Arise isn't credited to anyone, but stickers at the time said Palace.

I'll take Palace, because "Riding" is my favorite song of his so far, and Days in the Wake is still my favorite album of his.

― steve hise, Thursday, 28 April 2005 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going to hunker down in the BPB campground, even if we can't get the damn fire going. I prefer the more "polished" vocals, when WO's voice shines clearly as the gorgeous instrument it is. (Most beautiful indie rock voice?) Sometimes on Palace records the constant warbling can be a little too much; it's more effective when used at just the right times.

I agree that Ease Down the Road deserves more hugs and comfyer rocking chairs.

― erklie, Thursday, 28 April 2005 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

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