Dark Night of the Soul

Originally released in 2009, Dark Night Of The Soul was delivered dead on arrival thanks to Parlophone and copyright issues. So it was that the album was released as a book of photography (provided by David Lynch) and a blank CD which was to be used to burn a leaked copy of the album. Between the original release and this more official offering, the deaths of contributor Vic Chestnutt and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous have added a further layer of mystery and importance to the material within the confines of Dark Night Of The Soul.

Dark Night of the Soul is a record with much backstory. To recap: following a legal dispute last year with EMI, the 'record' was released as a 100-page book with a blank CD labelled 'Use it as you will'. The music had leaked by that point, so that's pretty much an endorsement... However, that wasn't the end, as you are surely aware. The record has been given extra poignancy by the tragic loss of Mark Linkous by a shot to the heart (not that this is his last hurrah – the final Sparklehorse album was all but finished, and will presumably emerge at some future point). And not that that is quite the end of the story either: collaborator Vic Chesnutt died of an overdose of muscle relaxants late last year.