Album Spotlight: Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s ‘I See A Darkness’

In Wantlist

I See A Darkness

Bonnie “Prince” Billy

1998

Rock, Folk Rock, Acoustic

Vinyl, Album

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The debut album from Bonnie “Prince” Billy, 1999’s I See a Darkness wasn’t the first release from the musical artist behind the name. Since 1993, Will Oldham had been releasing albums under various Palace monikers – Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music – but for I See a Darkness, he decided to change his name completely. The country, folk, and indie rock elements from Oldham’s Palace days persisted, but Bonnie “Prince” Billy gave him the chance to develop a distinct sound, free of any preconceived notions. 

Released in January 1999 – although some sources claim it was released as early as November 1998 – I See A Darkness established Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s sound as one of stripped-down intimacy, timeless folk arrangements, and gothic sensibilities. Plainly recorded, the record sounds like you are right there in the room with him and his indie folk cohorts – including fellow Louisville, KY mainstay David Pajo of Slint, among others. The simple arrangements and recording enhances the vulnerability and catharsis of songs that grapple with darkness and the unknown.

Opening the album with “A Minor Place,” Oldham quickly establishes the delicacy and melody that shapes the entire album. His more somber sensibilities and sense of yearning intensify with “Nomadic Revery (All Around),” before the album’s title track takes the songwriter’s darker impulses to cavernous depths. 

“I See A Darkness” stares into the abyss and depicts “an evil person trying to do good in the world and failing time and again.” The song’s Appalachian roots and less-than-cheery subject matter attracted the attention of Johnny Cash, who covered the song on the 2000 album American III: Solitary Man. Just a year after the song’s initial release, Cash used his gravelly voice to reframe the track as a song about looking back at your life as you face your final days, solidifying the song’s status as a classic.

Elsewhere, the album continues to walk a gothic path. “Another Day Full Of Dread” mixes lines that read like a forgotten nursery rhyme and others that recognize the distractions we create for ourselves as fleeting – we ultimately “watch it all come down.” 

Explorations of evil and darkness extend across the second half of the album with songs like “Today I Was An Evil One” and “Black,” with the latter depicting someone embracing darkness, keeping the enemy close to weaken its power. Album closer “Raining In Darling” is a bare-bones piano composition that explores the mix of hope and doubt that love often inspires.

Throughout, Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s subtle folk songs deploy soft drum shuffles, sparse piano and keyboard, and subdued guitar strums to let the quiver of Oldham’s voice act as the album’s heart-wrenching sonic centerpiece. 

25 years after its release, I See A Darkness remains a powerful work of simplicity and raw emotion, reminding listeners that sometimes you don’t need a clear answer or path forward – sometimes acknowledging that you can see the darkness is enough.