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When I found myself in the American Southeast for a few years after giving up on college, one of the ways of making myself feel as though I kind of belonged was to immerse myself in the music.
Even early on, Mark Linkous’ albums as Sparklehorse held far more pull for me than other Americana artists. His approach to music was innovative, to be sure, but also desperately and distinctly melancholy. Love songs, as love itself so often is, were immersed in confusion, loneliness and despair. Even the ostensibly happy ones.
I didn’t know Linkous, though I met him once and found him to be an absolutely lovely man. He signed a poster, “Best Witches, Mark Linkous.” And now, according to a Rolling Stone report, he’s committed suicide. Even those among us who didn’t know him except through his music, maybe we’re shocked and not at all surprised. That’s what Linkous was always best at, evoking emotions along a wide spectrum, giving us nothing and everything to hold on to.
Everyone who loves anyone has their favorite song or album. With Sparklehorse, there was a lot to love, from Linkous’ debut vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot through his Dark Night of the Soul collaboration with Danger Mouse, which just this week was finally given the green light by EMI after leaking last year. My personal favorite was Good Morning Spider, though I thought maybe today the pair of songs which opened It’s a Wonderful Life were the way to go. The title track is almost unbearably sad, especially if taken at face value with the news of Linkous’ suicide still shaking music fans at their core. The second, “Gold Day”, is as uplifting as any music I’ve ever heard. And that’s kind of how I’d like to remember Mark Linkous, lovely and lonely and capable of such incredible beauty it’s impossible to remember what life was like before his music touched you.
