Cheyenne Mize & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Among The Gold (2009)

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Aging is shit: stuff starts to drag, things aren’t in the right place, hair leaves one area and moves to another. Thankfully music just seems to get better with time. The simplicity, honesty, and earnestness seems to trump any of that electro stuff you’ve been listening too, because that stuff is too big. It’s unwieldy. Old songs fit in your pocket. They crawl behind your ear. They remind you that someone could be singing to you.

That’s the beautiful recollection on Cheyenne Mize & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s EP Among the Gold out via local imprint/ne’erdowells Karate Body Records. I wasn’t the biggest fan to Oldham’s last output. It was too slick, too big, and too unhinged. And besides, he didn’t have that smooth female croon that he’s been developing in his work (See: The Letting Go). Cheyenne Mize (from Arnett Hollow) is the perfect antidote. These older tunes are elegant, focused, and beautifully spun. Like a story that just keeps getting better with age, Among the Gold places us squarely in the past and present — drifting on a hushed sunbeam of song. BACKSEAT SANDBAR