Dark Night of the Soul is a big musical collaboration between the band Sparklehorse, ubiquitous producer Danger Mouse, a whole bunch of other people, and David Lynch, who provides an high price artbook full of accompanying visuals (and may or may not give an uncredited vocal performance on the title track); the album is made up of fuzzy, melencholy vignettes about “dark” themes like revenge and suffering but with an overwhelming pop sensibility – the results often live up to the contributor’s reputations and add to the album’s engaging mood (Wayne Coyne on “Revenge”, Iggy Pop on “Pain”, Vic Chestnutt’s “Grim Augury”) but as with any kitchen with this many cooks, missteps are bound to arise. (Nina Persson’s two tracks are pretty meh and Frank Black seems misused)

Blank Slate: Due to an “ongoing dispute” between Danger Mouse and EMI, Dark Night of the Soul will probably never see an official release. It is widely available online though, and those who purchase “the album” receive either the limited edition Lynch art book or a poster, depending on what package they choose, and a blank CD-R to “use [as they] will”. I assume that means they should put the new Jonas Brothers album on it.

7.7 / 10

Self-released
2009

Ultimately more solid and sincere than their first hit-spawning release, The Odd Couple sees producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse pushing his super-infectious, nostalgically fun pop sounds to even further heights and Cee-Lo pushing his impressive voice into deeper realms of madness and performance.

Score: 4.2 / 5

March 18, 2008
Atlantic

Beck – Modern Guilt

July 8, 2008
Interscope
Rating: 4.2 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: Beck gets it right with this collection of excellent Danger Mouse-produced tracks, finally learning how to reign in his creative urges and get down to the basics, resulting in some of the best work of his career.

Best moments: “Gamma Ray” is a fuzzed-out piece of pop gold and “Chemtrails” is a serene and epic song with a great “Strawberry Fields Forever” ending. The closer, “Volcano”, sounds like a great lost track from Sea Change, with a bit of a Danger Mouse beat added to it.

Reatarded: Prolific and slightly scary garage punker Jay Reatard did a cover of “Gamma Ray” that appears on the single. Check it out at Last.fm or download it illegally on your own time.