''Wolfroy Goes to Town'' 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 name Bonnie "Prince" Billy on
Drag City in 2011.
Critical reception
Critical response to ''Wolfroy Goes to Town'' was generally positive. At ''
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
'', 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 76 ("Generally favorable reviews"), based on 21 professional reviews.
Anthony Carew, writing for the ''Alt Music Guide'', declared that the album was Oldham's "best, or at least most beautiful, since 1999's ''I See a Darkness''". John Mulvey, in ''
Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
'', noted that the album's "mood is even more quiet, delicate and sepulchral than that of ''The Wonder Show of the World''", and approved of the sense of "unflinching intimacy, extreme focus... finely-wrought songs whittled down to their essence, then allowed to unravel in the most stately and unhurried way". Writing for ''Dusted'', Joe Bernardi also commented on the album's starkness, suggesting that ''Wolfroy Goes To Town'' is "the sound of a lack, a series of sparse arrangements complementing desolate lyrics about rural desolation... The result makes for a listening experience that’s intense and potentially awkward, but one that also somehow rings true." ''No Ripcords David John Wood compared the album to ''
The Wicker Man
''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 nov ...
'', advising listeners not to "listen in the dark".
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
*
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 ...
– music, mixing
* Ben Boye – electric piano, synthesizer, pump organ, vocals
* Van Campbell – drums, percussion
* Shahzad Ismaily – percussion, guitar, vocals, mixing
*
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, mandolin, vocals, mixing
* Danny Kiely – bass guitar
*
Angel Olsen
Angel Olsen (born Angelina Maria Carroll; January 22, 1987) is an American singer-songwriter and musician from St. Louis, Missouri who lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
To date, Olsen has released six studio albums: ''Half Way Home'' (2012), ...
– vocals
* 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 ...
– illustration
* Shane Spaulding – photography
* Marko Markewycz – label design
* Dan Osborn – layout
Charts
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2011 albums
Will Oldham albums
Drag City (record label) albums
Domino Recording Company albums