Will Oldham wants us to be aware of structure, of dualism and symmetry. His new album, We Are Together Again, released under his Bonnie “Prince” Billy moniker, opens with Why Is the Lion? and closes with Bride of the Lion. The two iterations of the same song share similar (but subtly adjusted) lyrics, structured as a series of questions about fear, metaphysical in nature, to which the answer is difficult to fathom but seems to involve love at both personal and infinite levels. Why is the Lion? is slow, discursive, easy on the ear, decorated by Jacob Duncan’s flute. It approaches the realm of baroque folk, like some of Donovan’s work with flautist Harold McNair, but where Donovan was lighthearted even at his most melancholic moments, Oldham admits more darkness, weariness. Bride of the Lion is starker: Oldham draws out the rawness inherent in the lyrics, the guitars pull against the melody where once the flute embellished it. Not so much two sides of the same coin as a musical variant on the theme of yin and yang: there is darkness and light on both sides, and the two are prone to leak into one another.
As a songwriter, Oldham has developed a complex and dualistic outlook, shown by the subtle differences between those two bookend songs, but that’s not to say he’s short of a more playful kind of invention. Vietnam Sunshine combines fluttering woodwind with a brass section that veers between mariachi and oompah, while the ‘You are my sunshine’ chorus has the skittish tenderness of John Prine.
This complexity is a departure from Oldham’s last album, The Purple Bird, which came out just over a year ago. That was a country album, its heart on its rhinestone-encrusted sleeve. We Are Together Again, like some of his earlier work, sees Oldham slip into folky singer-songwriter mode, sometimes confessional, sometimes gnomic, always intriguing. A pretty melody – one of his prettiest in years – runs through Strange Trouble, a song whose lyrics are haunted by a keen existential anxiety. He manages never to be maudlin: his wisdom is homespun but off-kilter. Songs like (Everybody’s Got a) Friend Named Joe have serious things to say about our interpersonal relationships and why they are so important, while Hey Little is simply one of the truest, most emotionally resonant songs about parenthood you’re ever likely to hear.
There is also a political element: They Keep Trying to Find You is about the pros and cons – mostly the cons – of burying your head in the sand in the face of increasing external pressures, some of which may stem from the state of the world. Oldham pits the darkness within against the darkness without and comes to the conclusion that you can’t fight the former without facing up to the latter. Life is Scary Horses, described as a “spiritual cover” of the Sally Timms and Jon Langford composition “Horses” (Timms also sings on the track), is the most explicit exploration of our place in a dying world, and our part in its decline. ‘The human times have come and gone, we must accept our rule is done,’ sings Oldham, in what looks on paper like a bleak moment of defeatism. But it is a vision shot through with grace and beauty: elegant violin, a restrained shuffle of percussion, a flighty Celtic whistle like a spirit escaping on the breeze. Acceptance is not the same as defeat; it carries with it hope and the possibility of change. This is what Oldham clings to throughout the album, and what releases it from heavy-heartedness.
As has become customary for Bonnie “Prince” Billy albums, We Are Together Again welcomes a large and varied band of collaborators. Jacob Duncan’s flute and sax feature heavily, as does multi-instrumentalist Thomas Deakin. Oldham’s brother Ned, who contributed to many of the earlier albums, comes back into the fold on bass for the first time in two decades, and their cousin Ryder McNair adds string arrangements and piano. Erin Hill’s harp adds an ethereal note to Davey Dead, while the modular synth on the same song comes from Chris Bush. Five co-vocalists are listed, including all three frontwomen from the band Duchess, which means a handful of these songs are essentially duets, a form Oldham has excelled at in the past. The multiple voices are particularly effective on The Children are Sick, where they seem to lift each other up, counteract each other’s idiosyncrasies and weave surprising threads into the melody.
A conservative estimate suggests that We Are Together Again is Will Oldham’s thirty-first studio album, and while he is still circling many of the themes that have preoccupied him since his Palace Brothers days, he has become both wider in reach (the songs about parenting and the state of the world) and more approachable, angling in on his subjects from new viewpoints and using new and unexpected combinations of musicians. This is some of his best work, as wide-eyed as ever at the mysteries of the world, but full of heart and hope.
We Are Together Again (March 6th, 2026) Domino (UK/EU) / No Quarter (US)
Pre-order: https://bonnieprincebilly.ffm.to/togetheragain-lp