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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Master And Everyone
by Bonnie "Prince" Billy


9.4

based on 11 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
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Rate this album

FILM:

Old Joy

Don't know Bonnie "Prince" Billy? You may know him better by his given name, Will Oldham, who recorded under his name as well as Palace Music throughout the 1990s. This is his third album under the Billy moniker, and features contributions from members of Lambchop.

LABEL:	Drag City / Domino
RELEASE DATE:	28 January 2003
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Alt-Country

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Uncut

In just over 35 minutes, the Bonnie Prince's mastery of form, blend of gentle awe and trembling sweetness are distilled to their essence. [Album of the Month, Feb 2003, p.74]

100

Dusted Magazine

It is perhaps Oldham’s best work yet, and somewhat ironically, his most accessible as well.

Entertainment Weekly

If you can find 30 minutes in your day for a Friends rerun, surely you can carve out time to give this gentle sigh of a record the attention it deserves. [14 Feb 2003, p.73]

New Musical Express

Filled with both a clarity of instrumentation and thought, this is an album of undeniably mature work. And one which knows how to effect a large emotional impact without unsightly flexing of the muscles.

Mojo

It doesn't matter whether we're spying through his windows when he's so clearly spying through ours, his peculiarly stilted narratives and ageless music fusing into universal images of loneliness. [Feb 2003, p.94]

Q Magazine

His most poignant and accessible work to date. [Feb 2003, p.96]

All Music Guide

Oldham concentrates on crafting unremittingly introspective and confessional material in a spare, old-timey format. As sometimes happens on the recordings of his kindred spirit Cat Power, such unstinting uniformity can be a curse as well as a blessing.

Junkmedia

A good album that finds Oldham retreating from the layered solemnity of his most recent releases in favor of a mood that is as intimate and delicate as it is bittersweet and biting.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

There's nothing aggressive or urgent about the record, and oddly, that works in its favor.

Pitchfork

Master and Everyone is a solid collection of rather thin songs that never quite sound intimate; songs that meant something profound to someone-- but always, it seems, someone else.

The Wire

Every knot has been planed away. It's hushed, wistful, 'cool,' acoustic, sweetly dolorous and subtly well crafted... and dull as corrective footnotes in a treatise on ditchwater. [#228, p.54]

The average user rating for this album is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Walt M gave it a10:
Will Oldham performs some of his most pastorally seductive songs sung with the utmost of poignant fragility. "Hard Life" has remained my current favorite song for some 2 years now. Short and bittersweet...

Mathieu C gave it a10:
Once Again, Pitchfork is incredibly wrong. This is a wonderful record, juste good songs, a warm sound, a touching voice and it's wonderfully recorded. You feel like your sitting next to Oldham singning you his song. One of the best disc in my collection.

brett a gave it a10:
Esential listening

Benjamin Bunny gave it a 6:
Gorgeous production, pretty songs, nothing new or interesting to anyone who isn't already a fan of Mr. Oldham's profilic, scattershot genius. He's written some brilliant songs in his career and all of them are on other albums. Nice, but fairly disposable.

chris b gave it an 8:
Soft and cool. Nothing rocks on it. If it's not folk music yet it is a perfect and dark immitation. Old house. Broken rocking chair. This man will definitely try to steal your girlfriend and then write really deep songs about how he doesn't care that it makes him sad.

ben g gave it a 10:
incredible. the most beautiful album i've ever heard, no questions asked.

Andee G gave it a 10:
how ever, it is a really great album. great songs with a great voice!

Master And Everyone by Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Master And Everyone
by Bonnie "Prince" Billy