Stepping sideways – as ever – from the occasionally ribald comedy of Superwolf, The Letting Go mimics the sensation of falling in love while providing a tour of this singular artist’s multi-faceted musical impulses (let’s skip the ridiculous alt-country, garage-folk argument, shall we?). Like his Royal Highness’ prettily sardonic 2005 collaboration with Matt Sweeney, over the course of this latest work (recorded in Iceland last winter with Björk producer Valgeir Sigurdsson) one stumbles hither and thither on a characteristically savage poeticism. In the folksy call and response of the title track, Mr. Oldham wishes to lay his beloved’s wet head on his “withering feet” and “use her skin as my skin to go out in the snow.” ‘The Seeding’ meanwhile, harks back to the hoarse lo-fi of his Palace Music days before spiralling off into an orchestral discord that seems to curtsey before ‘A Day In The Life’. The polyphonic doodling continues on ‘Untitled’, a track that echoes a Joycean sea to splendid effect.
Mostly though, he’s playing the awkward swain. The aching heart swell and gushing strings on ‘God’s Small Song’ create a veritable Garden of Eden (“For his eye there is an apple,” he sings wistfully) while the album’s climax ‘I Called You Back’ is a straight-up romance – “every time we kiss we find ourselves in love again”. It’s the enchanting sound of a near-contented soul nursing a drink somewhere at three in the morning.
Or as close to content as he’s ever going to get.