''Beware'' is a studio album by

Will Oldham Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Flophouse, Palace Br ...

. It was released under the moniker Bonnie "Prince" Billy on Drag City in 2009.

Critical reception

Critical response to ''Beware'' was generally favorable and positive. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 74 ("Generally favorable reviews"), based on 32 professional reviews, and the

user rating for the album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 12 users' votes. Ben Ratliff of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' gave a positive review of the album, writing: "There's a sense here of smart people being made to focus on a strange project."New York Times review
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Track listing

* Tracks 12–13 were only available on the initial pressing and have been removed from subsequent pressings. These tracks have been released as a digital download single and the new eleven-track version of ''Beware'' has an alternative cover. These changes were instigated by Will Oldham who felt that ''I Am Goodbye'' is more suitable as the final track.Alan Licht (Ed.) (2012), ''Will Oldham on Bonnie 'Prince' Billy''. Faber and Faber Ltd., London, pp. 294-5. .

Personnel

– music Backing band * Joshua Abrams – bass guitar, guimbri, vocals * Jennifer Hutt – violin, vocals *

Emmett Kelly Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898March 28, 1979) was an American circus performer, who created the clown figure "Weary Willie," based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s. According to Charles W. Carey, Jr.: :Kelly’s creation of ...

– guitar, keyboards, vocals * Michael Zerang – percussion, marimba, drums, vocals Special guests *

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage band cultu ...

– mandolin, pedal steel guitar *

Rob Mazurek Rob Mazurek (born 1965) is an American composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Illinois. Biography Rob Mazurek is an American electro-acoustic composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist living in Chicago, Il ...

– cornet * Dee Alexander – vocals * Leroy Bach – organ * Jim Becker – banjo * Robert Cruz – accordion * D.V. DeVincentis – saxophone *

Jon Langford Jonathan Denis Langford (born 11 October 1957) is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Langford is a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, the post-punk group The Three Johns, and the alternative count ...

– vocals * Nicole Mitchell – flute *

Azita Youssefi Azita Youssefi ( fa, آزیتا یوسفی ), born January 18, 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri, is an Iranian-American experimental musician, artist and music teacher based in Chicago. She was originally associated with the Chicago no wave scene, wh ...

– piano, synthesizer * Neil Strauch – engineering, mixing * Paul Oldham – mastering *

Sammy Harkham Sammy Harkham (born May 21, 1980) is an American cartoonist and editor, best known for editing the ''Kramers Ergot'' alternative comics anthology. His current work can be found in the comic ''Crickets'', which was published by Drawn & Quarterly f ...

– back cover, label design * Dan Osborn – layout design * Jeff Hamilton – cover illustration

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beware (album) 2009 albums Will Oldham albums Drag City (record label) albums Domino Recording Company albums