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From the mind of one auteur to another - this week things get a little darker and introspective as we discuss It’s a Wonderful Life, the third album by Sparklehorse.

The career trajectory of Sparklehorse is an interesting, if ultimately tragic one. Moving from lo-fi, one man band recordings to working with multiple indie music legends, as slowly as Mark Linkous’ career evolved, it did seem as though he was an artist that was genuinely passionate about seeing how many different ways he could make music. Towards the end of his career, he also seemed very interested in making music with more people. Indeed, the last album by Sparklehorse, The Dark Night of the Soul, is not only a collaboration with Danger Mouse but every single song is a collaboration with different singer. It is about as far removed as you can get from the early days of playing every instrument on every song.

Chris had a real hard time picking a Sparklehorse album because he felt that there’s not much between the first three albums. Nevertheless, he landed on this and we use this episode as a vessel to explore not just the band’s entire catalogue, but to talk about Mark Linkous’ life and death. So, for those unaware of Sparkhorse, here’s your trigger warning: we discuss suicide in this episode.

Is this an unsung classic? Is this even their best album? Have a listen and find out…