Whilst last year's "Ghosteen" and "Skeleton Tree" from 2016 have hoovered up plaudits aplenty, it is the album that proceeds those two companion pieces that makes the cut as one of the best albums of the last decade. It marks the beginning of the shift from his more traditional song based work to the more ethereal style of those two most recent works. The unique mix of the carnal, spiritual and sinister that runs like a thread of DNA through his catalogue is perfectly balanced here against the film soundtracks that he and Warren Ellis have dragged their work towards. Rhythmic pulsing underpins many of the songs like a spine holding everything together, over which the varying layers and styles drift in and out like the tide coming and going. Those tides reach a couple crescendos with "Mermaids" and "Higgs Boson Blues" before the beautiful, elegiac, ( and almost foreshadowing what was to come), title track breaks like a wave upon the
Welcome to Powderfingerspeaks. Here you will find my thoughts on the things which interest me. That will mainly be music, but will likely include beer, whisky, film and anything else that takes my fancy. Opinions are all my own. Your mileage may differ. If it does, then enjoy your own journey. This is mine, please join me for the ride.