A collaboration between fellow fringe dwellers
Daniel Johnston
and
Mark Linkous
seems like it should be a match made in twisted outsider-
pop
heaven. After all, the
Sparklehorse
leader is obviously a huge fan of
Johnston
's volatile but vulnerable music; aside from its influence coloring most of
's fragile, darkly innocent output,
Linkous
has gone as far as to put a cover of
's
"Hey Joe"
on his best album,
Good Morning Spider
. It may be because of this reverence that producer/arranger
gives
Fear Yourself
such a clean production that it almost sounds like
is trying to protect the songs -- or their creator -- from some of their more dangerous or unpredictable impulses.
's opening song,
"Now,"
gradually moves from four-track grit to the rest of the album's sheen, a la
Dorothy
leaving Kansas for Oz. Some of the less-glossy tracks, such as the brooding but optimistic
"Must"
and the cute
"Fish,"
and more kinetic numbers, like
"Mountain Top"
"Love Not Dead,"
manage to escape the feeling that characterizes most of
's softer songs (with the notable exception of
"Wish"
). ~ Heather Phares