If there was any proof that music could make you cry, “Why Is The Lion?” a good start. Bonnie “Prince” Billy sings about the lion that is lurking out there and the hope for the llama’s return, he sings about a relationship or at least about this hopeless world, he certainly sings about wildflowers and singing, about his own voice and about the hope that must not die, and when at the end of the song the flute in its solo becomes horribly crooked, then – I readily admit it – I had to shed a tear. The miracle that happens after this first song from WE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN is that it doesn’t get much sadder, but almost more beautiful.
As beautiful as on most of Will Oldham’s albums, and what I want to say is: If you don’t like Oldham, you won’t be convinced by this new album either. But if you like it, you will love WE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN at least as much as your favorite album from the Palace/Bonnie “Prince” Billy cosmos to date. Because of course this very special form of Americana is no longer being reinvented, but it is also more than just managed, Oldham always takes a new approach.
No one celebrates family life and friendship so movingly (“The Children Are Sick”), and no one sings so laconicly yet heartbreakingly about depression, about what it’s like to “spend your days in darkness and your nights as a friend of fear,” but if you’re lucky, there’s a Joe who tells you you’re okay (“(Everybody’s Got A) Friend Named Joe”). But this time the sadness goes deeper, in “Life Is Scary Horses” Oldham says goodbye to all of humanity: “The human times have come and gone / We must accept our rule is done.” What remains is love: “Though love is owned and will live on.” The great, great art of Will Oldham is to make this hope not just sound stale.
This review appears in Musikexpress 3/2026.
