You probably won’t see The Killers or Kings of Leon releasing a concept album about wildlife anytime soon. But it makes total, beautiful sense for the idiosyncratic alt. country husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks to author an album about the tribulations of Mother Nature.
The couple’s long and winding road began in Chicago in 1993 and now weaves around married life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, via nine studio albums over the course of two decades and some of the saddest, strangest and most beautiful songs you’ll ever hear. Now, their unique artistic vision takes in the wonders of the animal kingdom.
Every track is about a different creature. So you get the jaunty piano pop of ‘Octopus’ and the mournful American of ‘Owls’, with its baffling but beautiful refrain, “The owls, they mock me/ And have stolen my pills.”
It gets even weirder and more wonderful. ‘Woodpeckers’ is about Mary Sweeney, the infamous ‘Wisconsin Window Smasher’ who our favourite madcap country n’ eccentricity duo immortalise in song.
If the sound of a banjo or mandolin has you running for the hills, Wilderness will probably infuriate rather than entertain you. However, listeners with an open mind and a healthy sense of natural curiosity for both music and wildlife simply have to check this out.