“Change is a continuing and so I’m consistently altering,” sings Will Oldham on the primary monitor of his new album. It’s an existential truism that additionally works as a reminder to listeners – don’t count on any repeat performances. Nonetheless securely coupled to nation, people and Southern Americana his music could also be, Oldham, who adopted the Bonnie “Prince” Billy alias in 1998, is a protean modernist. So, alongside the album of Merle Haggard covers and a number of recordings with Emmett Kelly’s Cairo Gang, his résumé contains two shapeshifting LPs made with fellow “wolf” Matt Sweeney and final yr’s collaboration with Invoice Callahan on Blind Date Celebration, a spirited double that features such unlikely covers as “Deacon Blue” and Billie Eilish’s “Want You Had been Homosexual”. Hook-ups with Tortoise, Child Dee, Royal Trux and Björk additionally determine.

These wanderings are as a lot about Oldham’s follow as his expression, although clearly the 2 are linked. That’s, the thought of group, of collaborative music-making as a means of reaching out in case you are, as he as soon as mentioned of himself, “consistently battling a bent in the direction of isolation”. To that impact, for Preserving Secrets and techniques Will Destroy You, he gathered collectively a bunch of native Louisville musicians for an in-the-room set that took round six weeks to document and should have been a pleasure after the pandemic-imposed remoteness of Blind Date Celebration. Preliminary classes have been recorded with bass and drums however these takes have been scrapped, with the end result that the songs have a extra conventional really feel (it might be price remembering that drums are uncommon in Appalachian music). A rhythm part most probably appeared over-emphatic, given the songs’ advantageous bones and at instances stately bearing. At their core is the musical heritage of Oldham’s dwelling state and by extension, the Youngster ballads, however these are inspirations, not stone tablets; there’s communion with the standard crew of Cohen, Money, Prine and David Berman, plus some pleasingly out-of-context prospers.

It’s an intimate set suffused with love, understanding and skittish darkish humour, that addresses on each common and private ranges what it means to be alive within the twenty first century. Although mortality and Earth’s devastation forged an apocalyptic shadow, Oldham is rarely morbid – his singular lyricism lightens the philosophical load and candy melodies abound. “Like It Or Not” is the dulcet, Sunday school-ish opener, a mirrored image on goal, the fidelity of change and the levelling impact of our shared destiny. Easy guitar chords and Oldham’s lilting, close-mic’d voice are matched with minimal mandolin and a gentle backing vocal: “Everybody dies ultimately so there’s nothing to cover,” he sings nearly cheerfully, in an echo of the album’s title. “Prefer it or not, I’m singing destruction!/ Prefer it or not, I’m joyful at the moment!/Stand up and bear in mind your golden instruction!/The top of the world isn’t going away.” It’s adopted by “Behold! Be Held!”, which begins with what reads like a memo to his music-industry masters (“I wish to make music on a regular basis, not simply in suits and skirmishes”) however unfolds as a(nother) relaxed reminder of “that gruelling loss of life bell”, including keyboards and a few raffish saxophone. “Bananas” is a rapturous declaration of affection that nods to Neil Younger’s “Comes A Time” and options the operatically pure pipes of Dane Waters in addition to a superbly positioned “shit”.

There’s a change of temper for “Blood Of The Wine”, which shifts between a canter and a sluggish waltz and options powerfully underplayed mandolin and strings. Extra dramatic is “Timber Of Hell”, a vivid and foreboding, gothic-country portrait of ecological destruction, collective culpability and nature’s revenge. Lightness returns with “Rise And Rule (She Was Born In Honolulu)”, a finger-picked quantity within the English conventional fashion that ruminates on ancestry and holding the names of these we’ve misplaced alive, and nearer “Good Morning, Popocatépetl”. Right here, over gently lapping guitar and murmurous keys, Oldham harmonises with himself, vowing revenge for any mistaken performed to his mates. Taking his lyrics at face worth is, after all, as unwise now because it ever was.

Because the title suggests, Preserving Secrets and techniques Will Destroy You is an open, compassionate document with a fierce spirit, although it’s nothing like a guts spiller – that’s by no means been Oldham’s means. Nevertheless it does have a goal that goes past self-expression, which is perhaps why it lands with such resounding sincerity and successful attraction. As he writes on his Bandcamp web page, “its songs and music are by and for folks collectively. For listening collectively. Earlier than it will get too late.”